BARBELITH underground
 

Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.


The tool-making animal is---

 
 
Ethan Hawke
14:39 / 09.08.02
The crow. Scientists at Oxford University have observed a crow fashioning a tool out of wire in order to retrieve unreachable food. This is remarkable because it's not a natural object adapted for specialized use, but a purpose fashioned object out of unfamiliar material.
 
 
Morlock - groupie for hire
15:33 / 09.08.02
Can't say I fancy our chances of finding extraterrestrial intelligence if it takes this much time and effort to quantify the terrestrial kind...
 
 
KING FELIX
10:42 / 10.08.02
maybe the crow is an extraterrestrial?
 
 
sleazenation
12:57 / 10.08.02
The crow isn't the only one - asian shortclawedotters are fantastically dexterous with their hands while sea otterscarry around favourite stones to attack their prey with.
 
 
pointless and uncalled for
16:18 / 11.08.02
On a side not I wonder what it says that the female bird did the work and the male bird stole the fruits of the labour.

On certain levels I'm not suprised.
 
 
grant
15:50 / 13.08.02
I have also read that crows have a problem with leisure time - they're one of the few animals that are smart enough that they can get all their food, rest, etc. and still have a few hours left over every day.
They play a game much like football, using shiny objects.

Is it worth mentioning that African grey parrots have been tested near the mentally-retarded-human level on IQ tests?
 
 
tom-karika nukes it from orbit
20:17 / 20.08.02
"The crow isn't the only one - asian shortclawedotters are fantastically dexterous with their hands while sea otterscarry around favourite stones to attack their prey with."

This crow is unique because it adapts it's tools. It made the wire more hooked for smaller objects, but carefully kept it so that it would fit a a bottle neck.

Otters and apes simply take tools like sticks and stones and use them. They rarely adapt them. An ape amy occasionally strip the leaves off a twig, but not alot more.
 
  
Add Your Reply