I have been feeding a large family of crows for several generations. Now, I often get recognition "Howdy" calls even miles from my yard. A month ago, I was at the nearby wooded dog park and my beagle followed an interesting scent into the dense, brushy woods. When I called her and she didn't come out, right away, A crow that was watching me, gave me a hello and flew a couple passes across the woods, then flew a tight circle over one spot, before flying off. I headed in to the woods under the circle and found my dog. Crows know about the importance of keeping track of family.
I was working in the garden and I could hear the loud calls of a Crow and they seemed distressed. I went and checked it out and a young crow was trying to walk across a busy road to get to "Mom". I bent over and picked up the young crow and carried it across the road and placed it next to Mom and went back to work. For several years I would have a small flock of crows hanging out with me while I worked in the garden. I would throw caterpillars and bugs onto the sidewalk and they would feed on them. I started finding small shiny things, like bits of metal, and plastic on a nearby stump which might have been payment from them.
Same! At my previous place, I would leave nuts on the deck railing for a couple of crows that liked to hang out in my tree. Every day I would say "Hello!" to them and leave a handful of nuts on the rail. After about a week, I would start finding all kinds of funny little things left on the railing. Bottlecaps were pretty popular. Random nuts & bolts, hair ties, random keys... One time they left me a Tech-Deck. I still have it... somewhere.
I absolutely *DO* know that crows remember human friends for a longgg time. So I live in a colder climate, but during winter, sometimes I'll leave to Florida for 2-3 months. I've been feeding my crow family for about 8 years now (unsalted nuts - which they love). The SECOND I arrive back home, my crow family lines up at my back door like no time has passed at all. They remember me! They remember my car, that I feed them in my backyard at sunrise, what I look like, everything. They simply do not forget. If you start feeding the crows in your neighborhood, you'll see for yourself.... you can leave home for months.... but the moment you come back, the crows know. They remember you. They never forget. That alone is smart enough for me. I love them so much. 💗💗💗
@@ericcomp7032 This take lacks nuance, and doesn't apply solidly or universally. Mostly it gets spread around by people who don't want wildlife to bother them, or who don't want tourists getting themselves hurt. It absolutely isn't valid for urban animals from the standpoint of the animal's survival.
@@Finvaara mostly it's spread around by the most educated people on the topic. You know the people with a title that ends in "ist". your opinion is wrong.
Someone once told me that the local crowd had figured out a couple of things; 1) that covering the light sensors on the street lights turned them on, 2) that the lights were warm when they were on, and 3) they could use it to keep THEMSELVES warm during the winter, by taking turns covering the sensor so the others could warm up. Which I thought was awesome. ^_^
Oh my god that's not only intelligence but collaboration and theory of mind! And the bird turning on the light doesn't get warm, they have to trust that the other bird KNOWS how to do the same thing and also WILL do it!
That is sweet but it seems easier to me to believe crows randomly sat somewhere and their butts warmed up, so they went back and then went to similar looking spots. Thinking about a sensor and the light coming on are human thoughts. I do think it would be warm even with LED lights. While gaining efficiency they are powerful compared to a $5 strip of LEDs and the power supply would warm nicely.
I have 2 parrots and see this sort of stuff all the time. Today, my macaw took a dump, as birds do, but apparently we did not jump to cover it up with a paper, so she climbed over to the stack of newspapers, grabbed one, and covered it herself. This isn't a taught trick, she learned this on her own by watching us. She's learned how to open cupboard doors. She has a mental map of the kitchen so we have to rearrange where we store treats because she's not above commando raids on the treats. My grey is similarly cute/devious.
@@TomNook. We keep the grey away from legal documents, although we know she can do touch tones, so she *could* put the phone on speaker and call a lawyer.
Cockatiels are smart enough to be passive aggressive af. They use their comparatively small size to their advantage because they know you can’t full on punish them
Commando raids lol I love it. My best friend and his wife used to have a parrot and it loved to sit on your shoulder and imitate sounds from Mario Kart Doubledash. Good times.
I've befriended the crows in my local park by giving them dog biscuits. They always recognise me and fly over when they see me, cawing loudly so their friends come over too. They'll even follow me around the park to see if I've got any more. I've whistled at them ever since I started doing it to help them learn to recognise me, and today I got a big surprise when one of them whistled back. Amazing creatures.
I know first hand that owls remember individuals. I was walking my dog one night and let him off the leash as I sometimes do so he can chase a rabbit. (He never hurts them, he just does lick-and-release, not that the rabbit knows this.) He catches the rabbit right at the same time as a great horned owl dives on it. They collide and the rabbit gets away. For the next three years we got hooted at and sometimes my dog would get buzzed by what I assume was the same great horned owl. It carried a grudge.
I’m still mostly impressed by their grasp on Theory of Mind: understanding that not only does IT have thoughts in its head, but other creatures ALSO have thoughts in their head which push them towards certain behaviors, and that these minds can know things the crow DOESN’T know
This Crow has met someone that I haven't met, and is communicating their experience that i didnt have to me, but I believe them because i know they're a unique individual, and I am going to tell my friends. It's like humans gossiping! It indicates they understand lives and thoughts happening beyond their own, and have a concept of trust.
Too bad they have to open their skull's to "see" the electric signals. Not something to be proud off. I bet we wouldn't be happy to learn the rumors of aliens experimenting on us to be true, would we?
@@snakewithapen5489 I was gonna say, LMAO, nobody opened up the top of my head when I had my MRI done a few months ago to specifically look at my head and neck...!
Crows can tell the difference between a lunch pale and another kind of bag of non food items, you have to be really careful leaving your lunch bag/box on the top deck of construction sites. I was having trouble with a crow trying to get into my cooler one day so I placed a 2x4 on top of the lid; I came back, the lid and 2x4 was off and everything was torn up or missing. I think theyre smarter than we give them credit for. There's a famous humongous murder of crows that migrates every day around 5-530 PST in Burnaby BC Canada near me. There are even videos on youtube of it.
They fly from their daily haunts to roost in the Still Creek area. They gather around BCIT and Costco just to hang out until going the rest of the way to where they sleep.
there are a bunch of ravens where I live that throw nuts in front of passing cars so they break them open with their wheels. They have been doing it for decades and apparently they teach that to their chicks.
Walking down the street a few years ago, a came across a pair of crows who were hunting a pigeon to eat it. One scared the pigeon to get it to fly and the other dove from a power line knocking it into a passing car. The crazy part was that they coordinated this while timing where the car would be. They waited for the car to be closer so it would hit the pigeon and signaled each other when it was time. I was horrified since I walked past this as it happened but my mind was totally blown.
Brutal, but brilliant hunting strategy, people misunderstand "survival of the fittest", it's not about strength, it's about being the most well adapted to your environment, and Crows have adapted well to use humans to their advantage
Once a blue jay started making sculptures in the gravel near my basement window. It would bring white shiny rocks from elsewhere (I don't have such rocks nearby in my yard) and pile them on. Sometimes it would also bring all sort of plastic junk and put it in circle, and it would plant one of its feather vertically on top like a tiny flag. I don't know if it was some sort of elaborate mating ritual like most birds-of-paradise do, but it was adorable.
I once saw a crow doing the same sort of thing with ice from a frozen lake. They would step back and look at their work, then adjust it. I wish Mom and I had a camera with us, but cellphones weren't quite ubiquitous in our area yet (this was well over a decade ago, when I was little) and so we don't have any proof of what we saw - especially since the art itself would've melted away within the day. I am glad to hear that you, too, have seen a corvid artist at work. It was one of the coolest moments of my life. 🤩
In addition to holding grudges, they also remember people who are kind to them, and in many cases will bring gifts of thanks (reports of little shiny objects like bottle caps and the like are most commonly reported)
I was sitting in my car, watching people in park. On guy was eating at a picknic table. He finished, and threw the box holding his food in the trash. When the guy left, a crow flew down, and grabbed the box, and flew up, flipping the box on the ground with top up. The crow popped the box open, and took out the paper napkins, and the paper lining the box. Then the crow took out the three deep fried cheese sticks. The crow was standing on the paper, and stacked the cheese sticks. They were to heavy or something, because it picked up the stacked cheese sticks, and put them down. Then it ripped up the paper, and stuck the shreded under it's other foot. Sea Gulls were showing up. The crow plucked on shred of paper, and let it go. The wind took the paper, and the Sea gulls chased after it. So the crow kept shredding the paper, and stacking the cheese stick, and tossing off a bit of paper when the Sea Gulls got to close. The whole time it kept biting of chunks of cheese sticks. After a point the crow had a wod of shreded paper under one foot, and the cheese sticks half gone. It flew off with the cheese sticks, and a cloud of shreded paper flew everywhere. The large crowd of Sea Gulls chased the paper, and the crow flew off with it's cheese sticks.
I’m sure if scientists ever figure out how to measure consciousness they’ll find it in every animal to some degree, in the same way that every animal has some level of intelligence.
Imagine how simplistic, limited and illogical our thinking must seem to some AI systems even now. Humans like to say lobsters, insects, and fish (and of course every other animal) don't feel pain or emotions and aren't conscious due to whatever they supposedly can or can't do. One day we may find ourselves as victims of that same sentiment.
@@cyanofelis , except humans can not only communicate with AI systems (which, by the way, have absolutely no semblance of consciousness themselves), but are the ones that created those very systems. No human was built by a crow...
Which gives a whole new look at the fable “The Crow and The Water Jug” Like… this isn’t a story made up about problem-solving. Æsop may have seen it actually happen, and included it because it didn’t sound real.
We had some bird feeders out in our yard. The one had a spot for unshelled peanuts. A Blue Jay came every day and took all the peanuts, so we limited it to four peanuts a day. He would screech when all the peanuts were gone, but we'd tell him "No more today". One day we were in the den and all of a sudden the Blue Jay was at the window tapping and cawing. He worked it out and found us around the corner to the side of the house. The answer was still the same "No more today".🥜❌️🥜
Back in 1999 i was sitting in my truck in line at the local landfill waiting to dump a load of yard waste. As i waited, i watched a raven sneak up behind the landfill worker directing traffic, steal a can of coke out of his cooler, fly about 100 yards away, then pick up a bent spoon and use it to open the tab on the can of coke. Then another raven flew over with a plate. They ripped the can over, spilling the can into the plate and started drinking it. The entire event left me absolutely amazed. That was the first time i realized that corvids were so intelligent.
The crows' intelligence topic is so fascinating! It's so interesting to see how smart animals can be. Our crew were shooting sperm whales and got to learn with fascinating facts and footage how sperm whales learned to evade 19th-century whalers. It's an incredible story of survival.
The crows around here will be very protective of their young that they will dive at people if you are seen as a threat. I started feeding the crows every time I go to the store that they will fly by my head to let me know they are there and want a treat. When their babies and nests are around they do not bother me like they do others, they know I am not a threat so they tolerate me more than others. I am hoping to have some land on me for their treat. People that see this happening are amazed but I have always been good with animals.
The other day I saw something incredible. I noticed a crow soaring and diving in the breeze. It seemed like it was chasing after something. It would fly up and swoop back down over and over. I looked closer and it was playing with a plastic wrapper of some sort. The crow would drop the plastic wrapper, let it drift down, swoop down and catch it, then fly back up and repeat the process. This crow was legit playing fetch with itself. It was having the time of its life.
A grackle used to visit me at lunch everyday, I would take breaks in my car so I wouldn't be bothered by coworkers. Everyday it would be waiting by the car, perched on the passanger mirror. If I was watching a video or reading it would hop from window to window trying to get my attention. When I didn't go to the car, and instead took breaks in the courtyard. The grackle came looking for me and appeared excited when it found me. It knew who I was or at least what I looked like. The corvids are just amazing!
I love Crows. They are so cool. And they are so underrated. I love how they remember people who have been either nice or mean to them and have been know to either help those who are kind and have actually attacked those people who have been mean to them. I think they are very underrated birds.
A study on intelligence of birds found that more intelligent birds display higher levels of patience, which can also be said for humans. I found it shocking when I read the article, even though it’s obvious that it would occur in both species.
There was a research on crows awhile back. The researchers caught several crows and scared or beat them while wearing masks, then they let them go. When the researchers went outside while wearing the masks, all the crows in the area would attack them, not just they ones they had caught prior. As unethical as the experiment was, it proved that crows not only communicate, but have a strong sense of community and good memory.
I’ve heard that study discussed several times, but no one ever mentions that the crows were abused or that the study was unethical. I certainly hope it isn’t true.
The "Children of Time" books are fascinating with this, except that they feature uplifted Earth species, they results are still alien to us but fascinating
If your name/surname is anything like Vela, Vélez, Velazquez, Velasco or its Portuguese shortening of Vasco (and related Vasques or Vázquez), then your name means crow or raven (or little crow or son of crow, etc.) The original form Bela (or Vela) was a Basque Medieval name which is the same as "belea" or just "bela" (the crow), in turn related to "beltz" = black. Bear it proudly.
I’m proud that out of all the houses in the neighborhood, all the crows decided to use my roof as their nesting area. It feels badass to be like “yeah my house is the one with crows all over it” 😂
In 1965, my family hosted an orphaned crow who was around 10 days of age. He grew into a family member. We named him "Slow Joe Crow" but soon he was just Joe. He became buddies with our siamese cat and they would play and sleep together. He rode on our shoulders and learned to refrain from pooping on our backs. He mainly walked around nearby but flew very well when keeping with us while we rode our bikes. He provided a great introduction to the idea that animals are also personalities with their own ideas on how to handle things. Crows pay more attention to us than we know. Gray Jays or "Whiskyjacks" are another example of smart, inquistive and spontaneously interactive corvids. Native Americans called them camp robber birds.
When I worked at a wildlife rescue centre in Australia, we had to padlock the walk-in aviaries of the galahs and cockatoos, because they figured out how to undo the sliding bolts through the bars from the inside!
my dog is 13 yrs old. last year he learned that by looking in the mirror he can watch me doing stuff and compare that with the other not-mirrored-me whether i'm honest about my stuff or if i am scheming something out (yes, my dog is a paranoid one). i thought that this works only with the mirror in my room. nope. he discovered that that mirror in the hallway does the same thing, so now he can look into the kitchen without actually being present there and is able to see what my mother does there. he just sits by the mirror and looks into it and listens to the sounds around, when he sees a louder one from the kitchen, he runs into it to check what's happening (not all parts of the kitchen are seen in the mirror). of course he does his mirror viewing only when he needs something or he is bored.
I was kind to one crow in front of an audience of crows in the trees once. Started unintentionally and in fun, that immediately evolved to, whichever crow was on watch to spot me, had a name for me if I had French fries and two more syllables and my name if I didn’t, but it doesn’t end there. It was an epiphany the first time when I heard a lot of objection from all directions coming at me for not having French fries while they remained on the branches. I remembered all the times I heard crows in the background, cawing, they were objecting to not getting what they expected in disappointment and were by definition, bullying, maybe even amongst themselves. In discussion or inquires with friends, they’re 3 to 5 years old and ravens, are crows to the power of 2. They actually sound more like Jurassic park raptors. They can speak/ mimic human languages well
“Name”, or “Name-without-fries” if you have no fries, is one of the funniest concepts I've ever heard. Imagine if that was how people introduced themselves in spoken human languages. Like “Hi, my name is Cat-without-fries!” This story is awesome, and sincerely, thank you for sharing 😊🤩👍
So… I kind of got to know my neighborhood crows years ago, because sometimes one or two of them would perch on my fence and caw loudly at my small dog when I fed her. I would stay outside with her while she ate, but the one time I ran back in the house and come back out, one of them is eating her food, and she is under the porch. I think to myself that maybe she just decided to walk away from her food, so one of the local crows cawing on the fence took the food when she wondered off. I scared the crow off, she wouldn’t touch the food anymore, and I had to wash her dog dish before she would use it. I know what it seems like, like the crow scared her off and took her food as soon as the human (me) left, but she is a dog, and can wander off on a whim that I could never hope to understand in a valid way. I would have laughed it off, and not given it another thought, if not for what happened later the day. I was walking her, and out collie to use the bathroom at the park, but when we got there ALL off the little black poop bags where pulled out of the trash can, with little and big holes ripped in them, and spread out around the can. I don’t know why the crows would do that, it WAS them, because nothing else I can think of would pull all the poop bags out of the can and rip holes in them. I really think that crow got super upset with me, and the little dog after I shooed it away from her food dish. Maybe not, it really is beyond my scope, but I just don’t think a human or a cat came by within an hour after the food incident and did that to the scat bags that where in the trash. After that one of the bigger crows starting making the creepiest cawing sound I had ever heard, like if a ghost could make crow sounds. Crows are flipping crazy.
No, they are “Crazy” because they are smart. What I described, I think, if it even happened the way I thought it did, still not sure who/what else would do that. Back story, they are city birds, the one on my fence was part of a large “Murder” that lived in the woods that made up an abandoned lot, on the corner top half of my old neighborhood. The crows knew humans, and I don’t think they care for dogs too much, because of the barking, but my little dog is little so I think the one who ate her food scared her off. Anyway, the trash can thing seemed like revenge. I spooked the big guy off the dog dish, by walking out the back door and startling it. This all is a very in-depth bird thing, and I don’t know enough to say what I was seeing, any more than what I had seen, later heard and the assumptions I made about what happened, and why it happened. The more I learn about them, the more intelligent they seem, and the more I think my assumption may have been on to something. You’re right though, man, I honestly just think I upset him/her and for revenge they found something that smelled like my dog, and popped them after going into the trash can and taking them out. Crows are smart, no doubt, I saw the mask thing on Nova years ago, and know about them at times dropping shiny things off for their friends, but there are still a lot of things that had to happen for a murder of crows to put a plan like that in action. I’m still stunned, and a little unsure about how it all played out.
They do. I watched other videos that talked about a study when scientists in lab coats would come in and kinda pester a group of crows. Once the crows started reacting negatively, they introduced new crows, who quickly learned to react the same way. Then they removed the original crows until all new crows were left, and they still reacted the same way.
This is exciting in and of itself, but being able to identify intelligent life on this planet is also a pretty big prerequisite for identifying intelligent life on other planets, too.
Kevin from Epic Garden posted a video about a crow which he threw food out for. One day, the crow dropped a vintage lipstick case in his yard that valued at $50.00. That’s more reciprocity than many humans would give.
I wish I'd live long enoug enough to see real communication between us and ither animals, where we could without any doubt understand their feelings, emotions, have discussions on various subjects.
I was doing some outside work for a few months and I started throwing bread from my sandwiches on the ground during lunch. I start noticing crows coming around alot more. The thing that was amazing to me was that they would show up at lunchtime everyday without having a clock lol. And sometimes I was working in different locations yet they still found me.
We have always thought highly imof ourselves. I think the reason people don't think that animals are intelligent, it's do them not being able to talk or communicate with us. We all have pets and not all pets are dogs and house cats. There are so many people that own snakes and turtles. I have kept my fair share of reptiles for a long time. My youngest son is a senior in high school and he has a couple snakes and turtles. I have asked him a bunch of times why he keeps his reptiles? He immediately turned that question back to me. I kept reptiles for educational purposes and would go to schools for kids to see that these animals aren't the killers that people want to believe they are. But as far as a true pet, I love my dog. If I wasn't so allergic to cats, I am sure that I'd have one too. Reptiles don't show emotions and doesn't love you back as much as you want to believe they do. Now I have personally seen a couple of common snapping turtles that have made me question this. Whenever you have a turtles and that turtle sees you and starts trying to climb out of his enclosure, it's a pretty cool thing to watch. Then the kicker of all this is funny. The freaking snapping turtle wants to be picked up and held!!!! If my friend is sitting on the couch, his turtle is sitting on his lap with his head out and I mean stretched out sleeping!!! Anyway I thought that's a cool story to share. But as far as this video goes. Yes animals are pretty smart in their own ways. If they weren't smart, they would have been eaten by predators. Peace out everyone and take care.
I remember like 30 years ago I had finished high-school and went to university...I couldn't believe what I saw there....I Had a psychology class and I'll never forget, first day of class we met in this giant lecture hall and I sat way in back left side...then I turn my head and see a crow sitting 2 rows down wearing a black suit and typing something into his laptop...I thought I was dreaming...ended up becoming good friends with this guy cause we were originally from same state...he did time in county 2 years when he got caught with a gun as first offender..wildest thing I ever saw
I found a crow unable to fly anymore in the station surrounds. I phoned animal help, as they caught the bird and walked to the car where i stood the crow really looked very angry at me. Few months later (i feed crows in that area) a crow comes walking up to me up to 2 meter. I understood it was the non flying crow that came to thank me. That same week i walked to the station, a crow came flying over the road to land near me, little time later another crow landed. The crow had a young one and came to show it proudly. Great experience.
And how do you explain to a crow that it needs to SIT STILL for the MRI? They taught dogs to do this - if you´re patient, you can teach a dog to do anything - but ...
I’ve watched a crow untie a knot in a fast food bag to get to the food inside it. He didn’t tear in to the bag he used his beak and didn’t damage the bag at all.
When I was a kid, I would take my dog to the dog park. There was a crow who hung around there that I creatively named Crowey. Not only was Crowey extremely friendly, but he would play with the dogs and me. We would play fetch with a balled up wad of grass, and he would taunt the dogs.
Ive had a few crows . Small from the nest. Great fun for the family. My youngest son didn't care much for "K" knocking on his window at dawn to be feed a bit of dog food. Aside from that, we loved him. Always good laughs and smiles . That was long ago. The others were when i was a youngster. Smart , mischievous and great free spirits for pets , on thier terms.
This lady is going on and on about Science of Crows...all you need to know is Crows are smart and very sociable if your lucky enough to befriend one...not to mention they will bring you gifts. Lots of Shinies.
Birds brain is 2 to 4 times denser than human or mammal brain. Ravens I think are most intelligent birds with politics and social hierarchy at the peak of possibility for birds, with the limiting tools that nature provided them. Just sharing From personal experiences and reading the similar comments, I’d say abstract thinking leads to higher intelligence to qualify for definition of consciousness as they're communicating their intent vocally, knowing we can understand it if we were as smart as they are. And they always want something and they came to you or your trail to take it. They make plans for future
the way this video was prefaced by acknowledging so many cultures who hinted at this knowledge ages before science took the idea seriously is really some of the top tier reasons why i will always support sci show
Corvids, octopuses and humans... All we need are some portia spiders and sentient gray-goo and we can start exploring the galaxy (with the help of an AI built out of ants, of course)
I have long held that the primary difference between the success of humans vs those of many bird species is not their intelligence, but rather that humans possess an opposable thumb. There are many sentient species on this planet, yet we prefer to look for sentience in places to distant to get to in any reasonable amount of time. If we cannot communicate with the sentient life of our own planet, what makes us think we will have any chance of even recognizing communication coming from across the stars? Maybe we should learn to walk before we try to run.
I’ve made crow friends over a period of 7 years they bring me gifts, and follow me to the supermarket nearby and wait then follow me back. There’s quite a lot congregate on my, rooftop but they won’t let my neighbour come onto my driveway to talk to me, divebomb her 😬
As a child we would play at elementary school during the summer. We would jump the fence to play baseball, soccer, handball, etc. One day a baby crow had fallen from it's nest near the roof, I walked over and tried to climb up to put it back. A few minutes later I noticed a bunch of crows lining up across the roof top. One by one they began circling me. They would fly close to my head...when I'd look up another crow would attack my hands trying to free the baby. They literally strategized to get their baby back. When I dropped the baby all of the crows watching flew down and took turns scratching the top of my head. I had to run and jump on a fence to escape. About a week later some friends and I went to play at the school. As we arrived the crows began caring loudly. They sat staring at us from the roof. I got scar3d and left. Later I asked my friends what the birds did. They flew away as soon as I left. These birds remembered me!
most of us cant see, its a bird, not an alien, but crows behavior, is above and beyond instinct. We trained them to understand us by them observing, studying and even predicting our actions based on our individual lifestyle like an alien intelligence would.
I yesterday was feeding my 5 feral cats and heard 2 crows, and I threw some cat food and kind of laughed... NOT thinking they'd eat it 😮 I didn't see the crows eat it, but yesterday a crow DROPPED a walnut in my yard!! 😮 First of all, WT HECK?? I came here to see if I'm losing my mind 😮 Sounds like I made some friends 😊 Where'd they get a walnut too, by the way???
The consciousness bit, if the description of the study here is really the whole story, is very weak. If there are motor outputs in that area, then _of course_ they would be able to find correlates with what the bird _does_ independently of the ambiguous sensory signal. At some point in the brain, the action, including recalling the conditioned response, _has to_ exist; otherwise, the subject isn't going to do anything. Searching for consciousness in the brain is extraordinarily slippery this way. The stimulus and the response are in a chain of causal connections, so you can follow the signal around the brain all you want starting from either end, but the truth is that we don't even have a phenomenological criteria for what it is we're looking for. All we _really_ know is that it happens in our brain. Before we evaluate other species for consciousness, we need to study it in humans until we finally even know what questions to ask about an animal brain. For what it's worth, finding "neural correlates", some set of neurons that are responsible for doing _whatever it is_ that consciousness does, feels a lot like a forced division in the same way that dualism was/is. Back when we first started studying the brain, the default position went like this: Sensory signals enter your brain through nerves; we know this because injuring these nerves prevents us from using those senses. We know that nerves carry motor signals out of the brain, with evidence from both nerve injuries and direct electrical stimulation. Somewhere in between, though, all of the information is transmitted to your incorporeal soul, which must reflect on what it sees, feels, and knows, and prepare a response, which must then transmit its free will to the brain in order to work the muscles. As the decades went on, we identified function after function that some set of neurons could itself perform, by precisely defining the task, then finding neurons that fit the bill. Each time, the incorporeal soul was squished further into a narrower territory by the corporeal brain's capabilities. Today, there is essentially nothing left for the soul to do. When we study consciousness in humans and ask what anatomy of the brain performs it, we are assuming that it will perform a function equivalent to the soul. It will have access to the breadth of our sensory inputs, it will integrate memory and emotions to decide what actions to take, and its output will flow to the motor cortex. Then, we expect to be able to look at that arrangement of neurons and recognize how and why it forms consciousness. This last step is the very same magical thinking we just got over with the soul. We still think of our consciousness as being some kind of magic, even if it lives in a lump of gray matter. How could we possibly recognize this set of neurons from others? Any functional arrangement we see will always be rejected, because it fails to be as abstract, phenomenological, and _magical_ as how we see our own experience. What could possibly fit that bill? What could we see under a microscope and say "there it is, that's me!"? Nothing.
It's hard to find animal consciousness because it's hard to find human consciousness. The idea that "maybe I'm the only real thinking person in the world" wouldn't be even the slightest bit compelling if we could at all touch the consciousness of anyone but ourselves. We take it on faith that other people think just as we do, how could we possibly be set up to answer the question of any other living thing? Tangentially, perhaps that's why Vulcan mind melds are so fascinating to Trekkies-they're proof that yours is not the only mind in the universe
Interesting stuff! Minor correction with your computer analogy: Macs are PCs. They're functionally no different, and use the same hardware. The only real difference is software, particularly the operating system, but you can run Mac OS on any other PC, or even install Windows on a Mac if you're really determined, and it will run.
@@samarnadra That's... simply not true. "PC" isn't a brand or manufacturer, it just means "Personal Computer", which is what a Mac is. Macintosh was just a brand of PC manufactured by the Apple Computer Company. IBM also made PCs. Then dozens of other companies did. It was just Apple marketing which tried to sell Macs as something "different from a PC", when really they were just another brand of Apple PCs.
Minor correction with your correction: some modern Macs run ARM CPUs (e.g., the "M1" and "M2" chips), not AMD/Intel CPUs, so they're still sometimes different in certain fundamental ways.
I have been outsmarted by: Crows; grouse; deer; mice; racoons; rats; woodchucks; chipmunks; red squirrels; gray squirrels; fox squirrels; otters; Bass; trout; ducks; dogs; cats; fox and some I have forgotten. They do not have the 'software' to delve into Algebra or quantum physics, but that does not mean they are just dumb animals.
If conciousness is something that evolves convergently, similar to the way things keep evolving into crabs, it prompts a few questions for whatever remains of humanity if we survive long enough to "figure out" conciousness: What does awareness evolve into? Where can it go from here? What can we do with it, and what should we do with it?
I have been feeding a large family of crows for several generations. Now, I often get recognition "Howdy" calls even miles from my yard. A month ago, I was at the nearby wooded dog park and my beagle followed an interesting scent into the dense, brushy woods. When I called her and she didn't come out, right away, A crow that was watching me, gave me a hello and flew a couple passes across the woods, then flew a tight circle over one spot, before flying off. I headed in to the woods under the circle and found my dog. Crows know about the importance of keeping track of family.
❤️
I love these stories! When I've got time I'd love to put this comment in a video ☺️ can I?
@@AGoodBean Be my guest.
@@jpopelish Ty
Wow
I was working in the garden and I could hear the loud calls of a Crow and they seemed distressed. I went and checked it out and a young crow was trying to walk across a busy road to get to "Mom". I bent over and picked up the young crow and carried it across the road and placed it next to Mom and went back to work. For several years I would have a small flock of crows hanging out with me while I worked in the garden. I would throw caterpillars and bugs onto the sidewalk and they would feed on them. I started finding small shiny things, like bits of metal, and plastic on a nearby stump which might have been payment from them.
Same! At my previous place, I would leave nuts on the deck railing for a couple of crows that liked to hang out in my tree. Every day I would say "Hello!" to them and leave a handful of nuts on the rail. After about a week, I would start finding all kinds of funny little things left on the railing. Bottlecaps were pretty popular. Random nuts & bolts, hair ties, random keys... One time they left me a Tech-Deck. I still have it... somewhere.
That’s so cute! Good on you for helping that baby crow and mama
They ever left you any money?
So, you are just evil against caterpillars...
@@IIARROWS Somebody has to be, right?
I absolutely *DO* know that crows remember human friends for a longgg time. So I live in a colder climate, but during winter, sometimes I'll leave to Florida for 2-3 months. I've been feeding my crow family for about 8 years now (unsalted nuts - which they love). The SECOND I arrive back home, my crow family lines up at my back door like no time has passed at all. They remember me! They remember my car, that I feed them in my backyard at sunrise, what I look like, everything. They simply do not forget. If you start feeding the crows in your neighborhood, you'll see for yourself.... you can leave home for months.... but the moment you come back, the crows know. They remember you. They never forget. That alone is smart enough for me. I love them so much. 💗💗💗
They also teach their babies to recognize you!!🙌
Wow, cool story about how you accept harming crows to meet your emotional neediness. Feeding wild animals harms them...
@@ericcomp7032you seem like you’d be fun to hang out with
@@ericcomp7032 This take lacks nuance, and doesn't apply solidly or universally. Mostly it gets spread around by people who don't want wildlife to bother them, or who don't want tourists getting themselves hurt. It absolutely isn't valid for urban animals from the standpoint of the animal's survival.
@@Finvaara mostly it's spread around by the most educated people on the topic. You know the people with a title that ends in "ist". your opinion is wrong.
Someone once told me that the local crowd had figured out a couple of things;
1) that covering the light sensors on the street lights turned them on,
2) that the lights were warm when they were on, and
3) they could use it to keep THEMSELVES warm during the winter, by taking turns covering the sensor so the others could warm up.
Which I thought was awesome. ^_^
Oh my god that's not only intelligence but collaboration and theory of mind! And the bird turning on the light doesn't get warm, they have to trust that the other bird KNOWS how to do the same thing and also WILL do it!
Ravens in Whitehorse were doing that 50 years ago. Not so sure it works as well with fluorescent and LED bulbs, unfortunately.
So cute!
They need to re-do Jurassic park with the theropod dinosaurs being *much* smarter.
That is sweet but it seems easier to me to believe crows randomly sat somewhere and their butts warmed up, so they went back and then went to similar looking spots. Thinking about a sensor and the light coming on are human thoughts. I do think it would be warm even with LED lights. While gaining efficiency they are powerful compared to a $5 strip of LEDs and the power supply would warm nicely.
I have 2 parrots and see this sort of stuff all the time. Today, my macaw took a dump, as birds do, but apparently we did not jump to cover it up with a paper, so she climbed over to the stack of newspapers, grabbed one, and covered it herself. This isn't a taught trick, she learned this on her own by watching us. She's learned how to open cupboard doors. She has a mental map of the kitchen so we have to rearrange where we store treats because she's not above commando raids on the treats.
My grey is similarly cute/devious.
Beware, they're going to change the title deeds of your house next and kick you out
@@TomNook. We keep the grey away from legal documents, although we know she can do touch tones, so she *could* put the phone on speaker and call a lawyer.
Cockatiels are smart enough to be passive aggressive af. They use their comparatively small size to their advantage because they know you can’t full on punish them
Commando raids lol I love it. My best friend and his wife used to have a parrot and it loved to sit on your shoulder and imitate sounds from Mario Kart Doubledash. Good times.
@@thepeff We had a budgie and a cockatiel when i was a kid, and yeah, I totally concur. That cockatiel was straight up evil :) funny, but evil.
I've befriended the crows in my local park by giving them dog biscuits. They always recognise me and fly over when they see me, cawing loudly so their friends come over too. They'll even follow me around the park to see if I've got any more. I've whistled at them ever since I started doing it to help them learn to recognise me, and today I got a big surprise when one of them whistled back. Amazing creatures.
I know first hand that owls remember individuals.
I was walking my dog one night and let him off the leash as I sometimes do so he can chase a rabbit. (He never hurts them, he just does lick-and-release, not that the rabbit knows this.) He catches the rabbit right at the same time as a great horned owl dives on it. They collide and the rabbit gets away. For the next three years we got hooted at and sometimes my dog would get buzzed by what I assume was the same great horned owl. It carried a grudge.
I’m still mostly impressed by their grasp on Theory of Mind: understanding that not only does IT have thoughts in its head, but other creatures ALSO have thoughts in their head which push them towards certain behaviors, and that these minds can know things the crow DOESN’T know
This Crow has met someone that I haven't met, and is communicating their experience that i didnt have to me, but I believe them because i know they're a unique individual, and I am going to tell my friends. It's like humans gossiping! It indicates they understand lives and thoughts happening beyond their own, and have a concept of trust.
And yet we still have certain "specialists" suggesting autistic people lack that ability, years after it was debunked... 🙄
Too bad they have to open their skull's to "see" the electric signals. Not something to be proud off. I bet we wouldn't be happy to learn the rumors of aliens experimenting on us to be true, would we?
@JorgeForge ?? You don't have to open a skull to see electrical pathways or brain structure lol. We don't in people. That's what MRIs and EEGs are for
@@snakewithapen5489 I was gonna say, LMAO, nobody opened up the top of my head when I had my MRI done a few months ago to specifically look at my head and neck...!
Crows can tell the difference between a lunch pale and another kind of bag of non food items, you have to be really careful leaving your lunch bag/box on the top deck of construction sites. I was having trouble with a crow trying to get into my cooler one day so I placed a 2x4 on top of the lid; I came back, the lid and 2x4 was off and everything was torn up or missing. I think theyre smarter than we give them credit for.
There's a famous humongous murder of crows that migrates every day around 5-530 PST in Burnaby BC Canada near me. There are even videos on youtube of it.
Lunch pail.
My partner works for a GC near there, and they said the crows on Van worksites will open people's backpacks to get at their lunches.
They fly from their daily haunts to roost in the Still Creek area. They gather around BCIT and Costco just to hang out until going the rest of the way to where they sleep.
Some crows conned me out of $20 once in a three card monte game.
Crows know how much good food we throw away too, they'll raid a garbage can for all the fast food and take their favorites
there are a bunch of ravens where I live that throw nuts in front of passing cars so they break them open with their wheels. They have been doing it for decades and apparently they teach that to their chicks.
Walking down the street a few years ago, a came across a pair of crows who were hunting a pigeon to eat it. One scared the pigeon to get it to fly and the other dove from a power line knocking it into a passing car. The crazy part was that they coordinated this while timing where the car would be. They waited for the car to be closer so it would hit the pigeon and signaled each other when it was time. I was horrified since I walked past this as it happened but my mind was totally blown.
Brutal, but brilliant hunting strategy, people misunderstand "survival of the fittest", it's not about strength, it's about being the most well adapted to your environment, and Crows have adapted well to use humans to their advantage
How did you know they didn't want to murder that particular pigeon? Did that pigeon pee on the wrong car?
Woah
😱. 😱. 😱
Once a blue jay started making sculptures in the gravel near my basement window. It would bring white shiny rocks from elsewhere (I don't have such rocks nearby in my yard) and pile them on. Sometimes it would also bring all sort of plastic junk and put it in circle, and it would plant one of its feather vertically on top like a tiny flag. I don't know if it was some sort of elaborate mating ritual like most birds-of-paradise do, but it was adorable.
I once saw a crow doing the same sort of thing with ice from a frozen lake. They would step back and look at their work, then adjust it. I wish Mom and I had a camera with us, but cellphones weren't quite ubiquitous in our area yet (this was well over a decade ago, when I was little) and so we don't have any proof of what we saw - especially since the art itself would've melted away within the day.
I am glad to hear that you, too, have seen a corvid artist at work. It was one of the coolest moments of my life. 🤩
Worth mentioning that crows hold grudges, remember specific people and will investigate deaths of their flock.
In addition to holding grudges, they also remember people who are kind to them, and in many cases will bring gifts of thanks (reports of little shiny objects like bottle caps and the like are most commonly reported)
Not only investigate flock deaths, but they'll even hold Mafia-esque meetings to share information and/or plot revenge with other groups.
I was sitting in my car, watching people in park. On guy was eating at a picknic table. He finished, and threw the box holding his food in the trash. When the guy left, a crow flew down, and grabbed the box, and flew up, flipping the box on the ground with top up. The crow popped the box open, and took out the paper napkins, and the paper lining the box. Then the crow took out the three deep fried cheese sticks. The crow was standing on the paper, and stacked the cheese sticks. They were to heavy or something, because it picked up the stacked cheese sticks, and put them down. Then it ripped up the paper, and stuck the shreded under it's other foot. Sea Gulls were showing up. The crow plucked on shred of paper, and let it go. The wind took the paper, and the Sea gulls chased after it. So the crow kept shredding the paper, and stacking the cheese stick, and tossing off a bit of paper when the Sea Gulls got to close. The whole time it kept biting of chunks of cheese sticks. After a point the crow had a wod of shreded paper under one foot, and the cheese sticks half gone. It flew off with the cheese sticks, and a cloud of shreded paper flew everywhere. The large crowd of Sea Gulls chased the paper, and the crow flew off with it's cheese sticks.
That’s so cool
I didn’t know crows were magicians too! That’s damn smart!
There's an Aesop's fable about a crow who used pebbles to cause the water level of a pitcher to rise so it could have a drink of water.
I’m sure if scientists ever figure out how to measure consciousness they’ll find it in every animal to some degree, in the same way that every animal has some level of intelligence.
I’m pretty sure they’ll be disappointed 😔 by the self awareness of humans 👥👥👥👥. 😅
not every animal sinds a lot of animals dont have brains in the first place. ofcourse also depends on what is meant with conciousness.
@@theflyingdutchguy9870 tell me a single complex animal that doesn't have a brain please
Imagine how simplistic, limited and illogical our thinking must seem to some AI systems even now.
Humans like to say lobsters, insects, and fish (and of course every other animal) don't feel pain or emotions and aren't conscious due to whatever they supposedly can or can't do. One day we may find ourselves as victims of that same sentiment.
@@cyanofelis , except humans can not only communicate with AI systems (which, by the way, have absolutely no semblance of consciousness themselves), but are the ones that created those very systems. No human was built by a crow...
There’s a few good videos of crows problem solving on here! One of them using stones to raise food using water displacement is pretty cool!
Which gives a whole new look at the fable “The Crow and The Water Jug”
Like… this isn’t a story made up about problem-solving. Æsop may have seen it actually happen, and included it because it didn’t sound real.
We had some bird feeders out in our yard. The one had a spot for unshelled peanuts. A Blue Jay came every day and took all the peanuts, so we limited it to four peanuts a day. He would screech when all the peanuts were gone, but we'd tell him "No more today". One day we were in the den and all of a sudden the Blue Jay was at the window tapping and cawing. He worked it out and found us around the corner to the side of the house. The answer was still the same "No more today".🥜❌️🥜
Back in 1999 i was sitting in my truck in line at the local landfill waiting to dump a load of yard waste. As i waited, i watched a raven sneak up behind the landfill worker directing traffic, steal a can of coke out of his cooler, fly about 100 yards away, then pick up a bent spoon and use it to open the tab on the can of coke. Then another raven flew over with a plate. They ripped the can over, spilling the can into the plate and started drinking it.
The entire event left me absolutely amazed. That was the first time i realized that corvids were so intelligent.
The crows' intelligence topic is so fascinating! It's so interesting to see how smart animals can be. Our crew were shooting sperm whales and got to learn with fascinating facts and footage how sperm whales learned to evade 19th-century whalers. It's an incredible story of survival.
The crows around here will be very protective of their young that they will dive at people if you are seen as a threat.
I started feeding the crows every time I go to the store that they will fly by my head to let me know they are there and want a treat. When their babies and nests are around they do not bother me like they do others, they know I am not a threat so they tolerate me more than others.
I am hoping to have some land on me for their treat.
People that see this happening are amazed but I have always been good with animals.
The other day I saw something incredible. I noticed a crow soaring and diving in the breeze. It seemed like it was chasing after something. It would fly up and swoop back down over and over. I looked closer and it was playing with a plastic wrapper of some sort. The crow would drop the plastic wrapper, let it drift down, swoop down and catch it, then fly back up and repeat the process. This crow was legit playing fetch with itself. It was having the time of its life.
A grackle used to visit me at lunch everyday, I would take breaks in my car so I wouldn't be bothered by coworkers. Everyday it would be waiting by the car, perched on the passanger mirror. If I was watching a video or reading it would hop from window to window trying to get my attention.
When I didn't go to the car, and instead took breaks in the courtyard. The grackle came looking for me and appeared excited when it found me. It knew who I was or at least what I looked like. The corvids are just amazing!
Watching an ape make a tool is impressive enough, but watching a bird do it, with a beak, is incredible.
I love Crows. They are so cool. And they are so underrated. I love how they remember people who have been either nice or mean to them and have been know to either help those who are kind and have actually attacked those people who have been mean to them. I think they are very underrated birds.
They're like the chickens in Zelda
This is fascinating; thank you for putting together this video, SciShow.
As well, Ms. Bear Don't Walk's new ink is great art and well done.
I once saw a crow open a mini bag of nacho chips.
I was impressed.
A study on intelligence of birds found that more intelligent birds display higher levels of patience, which can also be said for humans. I found it shocking when I read the article, even though it’s obvious that it would occur in both species.
There was a research on crows awhile back. The researchers caught several crows and scared or beat them while wearing masks, then they let them go. When the researchers went outside while wearing the masks, all the crows in the area would attack them, not just they ones they had caught prior. As unethical as the experiment was, it proved that crows not only communicate, but have a strong sense of community and good memory.
And can pass those memories on to other crows, including the next generation.
Well that’s horrible
horseflies too. cant be mean, gotta be repulsively unmitigably psycho.
I don't think they scared or beat them. If we're thinking of the same study, they posed with a dummy of a dead crow
I’ve heard that study discussed several times, but no one ever mentions that the crows were abused or that the study was unethical. I certainly hope it isn’t true.
This has me thinking about how aliens might evolve different forms of complex intelligence on other planets.
The "Children of Time" books are fascinating with this, except that they feature uplifted Earth species, they results are still alien to us but fascinating
If your name/surname is anything like Vela, Vélez, Velazquez, Velasco or its Portuguese shortening of Vasco (and related Vasques or Vázquez), then your name means crow or raven (or little crow or son of crow, etc.) The original form Bela (or Vela) was a Basque Medieval name which is the same as "belea" or just "bela" (the crow), in turn related to "beltz" = black. Bear it proudly.
I’m proud that out of all the houses in the neighborhood, all the crows decided to use my roof as their nesting area. It feels badass to be like “yeah my house is the one with crows all over it” 😂
There are many good books on this subject. Corvids are indeed the smartest birds with Ravens known to be the smartest!
What about kias?
I had one that would help me with my math homework.
In 1965, my family hosted an orphaned crow who was around 10 days of age. He grew into a family member. We named him "Slow Joe Crow" but soon he was just Joe. He became buddies with our siamese cat and they would play and sleep together. He rode on our shoulders and learned to refrain from pooping on our backs. He mainly walked around nearby but flew very well when keeping with us while we rode our bikes. He provided a great introduction to the idea that animals are also personalities with their own ideas on how to handle things. Crows pay more attention to us than we know.
Gray Jays or "Whiskyjacks" are another example of smart, inquistive and spontaneously interactive corvids. Native Americans called them camp robber birds.
I want a pet that pays attention to me.
When I worked at a wildlife rescue centre in Australia, we had to padlock the walk-in aviaries of the galahs and cockatoos, because they figured out how to undo the sliding bolts through the bars from the inside!
my dog is 13 yrs old. last year he learned that by looking in the mirror he can watch me doing stuff and compare that with the other not-mirrored-me whether i'm honest about my stuff or if i am scheming something out (yes, my dog is a paranoid one). i thought that this works only with the mirror in my room. nope. he discovered that that mirror in the hallway does the same thing, so now he can look into the kitchen without actually being present there and is able to see what my mother does there. he just sits by the mirror and looks into it and listens to the sounds around, when he sees a louder one from the kitchen, he runs into it to check what's happening (not all parts of the kitchen are seen in the mirror). of course he does his mirror viewing only when he needs something or he is bored.
I was kind to one crow in front of an audience of crows in the trees once. Started unintentionally and in fun, that immediately evolved to, whichever crow was on watch to spot me, had a name for me if I had French fries and two more syllables and my name if I didn’t, but it doesn’t end there. It was an epiphany the first time when I heard a lot of objection from all directions coming at me for not having French fries while they remained on the branches. I remembered all the times I heard crows in the background, cawing, they were objecting to not getting what they expected in disappointment and were by definition, bullying, maybe even amongst themselves. In discussion or inquires with friends, they’re 3 to 5 years old and ravens, are crows to the power of 2. They actually sound more like Jurassic park raptors. They can speak/ mimic human languages well
iirc, raptors are what evolved into modern day birds
“Name”, or “Name-without-fries” if you have no fries, is one of the funniest concepts I've ever heard. Imagine if that was how people introduced themselves in spoken human languages. Like “Hi, my name is Cat-without-fries!” This story is awesome, and sincerely, thank you for sharing 😊🤩👍
Dude from the crow study is named Chris Bird. Genuinely thought that was the name of the crow. 😂
Yay Rose! We haven't seen you in a while. It's good to hear your narration again. Thanks!
Smart enough to remember phrases and speak them, like Parrots and then some.
So… I kind of got to know my neighborhood crows years ago, because sometimes one or two of them would perch on my fence and caw loudly at my small dog when I fed her.
I would stay outside with her while she ate, but the one time I ran back in the house and come back out, one of them is eating her food, and she is under the porch.
I think to myself that maybe she just decided to walk away from her food, so one of the local crows cawing on the fence took the food when she wondered off.
I scared the crow off, she wouldn’t touch the food anymore, and I had to wash her dog dish before she would use it. I know what it seems like, like the crow scared her off and took her food as soon as the human (me) left, but she is a dog, and can wander off on a whim that I could never hope to understand in a valid way.
I would have laughed it off, and not given it another thought, if not for what happened later the day.
I was walking her, and out collie to use the bathroom at the park, but when we got there ALL off the little black poop bags where pulled out of the trash can, with little and big holes ripped in them, and spread out around the can.
I don’t know why the crows would do that, it WAS them, because nothing else I can think of would pull all the poop bags out of the can and rip holes in them.
I really think that crow got super upset with me, and the little dog after I shooed it away from her food dish.
Maybe not, it really is beyond my scope, but I just don’t think a human or a cat came by within an hour after the food incident and did that to the scat bags that where in the trash.
After that one of the bigger crows starting making the creepiest cawing sound I had ever heard, like if a ghost could make crow sounds.
Crows are flipping crazy.
Maybe the crows were looking for food in the bags, I've seen them pull plastic bags from trash cans to get at what's inside
Not crazy but smart. You pissed it off.
No, they are “Crazy” because they are smart. What I described, I think, if it even happened the way I thought it did, still not sure who/what else would do that.
Back story, they are city birds, the one on my fence was part of a large “Murder” that lived in the woods that made up an abandoned lot, on the corner top half of my old neighborhood.
The crows knew humans, and I don’t think they care for dogs too much, because of the barking, but my little dog is little so I think the one who ate her food scared her off.
Anyway, the trash can thing seemed like revenge. I spooked the big guy off the dog dish, by walking out the back door and startling it.
This all is a very in-depth bird thing, and I don’t know enough to say what I was seeing, any more than what I had seen, later heard and the assumptions I made about what happened, and why it happened.
The more I learn about them, the more intelligent they seem, and the more I think my assumption may have been on to something.
You’re right though, man, I honestly just think I upset him/her and for revenge they found something that smelled like my dog, and popped them after going into the trash can and taking them out.
Crows are smart, no doubt, I saw the mask thing on Nova years ago, and know about them at times dropping shiny things off for their friends, but there are still a lot of things that had to happen for a murder of crows to put a plan like that in action.
I’m still stunned, and a little unsure about how it all played out.
So I guess the raptors in Jurassic Park figuring out how to open doors is not totally implausible.
yeah they were big smart turkeys
@@keithharper32 Hollywood yet again setting unrealistic and unattainable expectations. Will it ever end?
It’s fascinating to learn more about the crows I often see around my house. Thanks for the great info!
As an Aussie, I’ll remind everyone here how awesome magpies are.
I remember magpies well from my one year stint in The Oz - they are indeed awesome!
I agree magpies are amazing
I’m jealous that you get to see cockatoos. At some point in my life, I am definitely visiting Australia just to see them.
I have been told that blackbirds pass on generational knowledge. From what I've observed over my life, it's believable.
they have their own languages.
I do wonder if they have stories that they retell their children, much like humans in tribal societies did, a kind of oral history. 🤔
They do. I watched other videos that talked about a study when scientists in lab coats would come in and kinda pester a group of crows. Once the crows started reacting negatively, they introduced new crows, who quickly learned to react the same way. Then they removed the original crows until all new crows were left, and they still reacted the same way.
The red-winged blackbirds are dicks, I know that much.
@@Olkv3D most animals have their own language.
This is exciting in and of itself, but being able to identify intelligent life on this planet is also a pretty big prerequisite for identifying intelligent life on other planets, too.
Kevin from Epic Garden posted a video about a crow which he threw food out for. One day, the crow dropped a vintage lipstick case in his yard that valued at $50.00. That’s more reciprocity than many humans would give.
I wish I'd live long enoug enough to see real communication between us and ither animals, where we could without any doubt understand their feelings, emotions, have discussions on various subjects.
I was doing some outside work for a few months and I started throwing bread from my sandwiches on the ground during lunch. I start noticing crows coming around alot more. The thing that was amazing to me was that they would show up at lunchtime everyday without having a clock lol. And sometimes I was working in different locations yet they still found me.
We have always thought highly imof ourselves. I think the reason people don't think that animals are intelligent, it's do them not being able to talk or communicate with us.
We all have pets and not all pets are dogs and house cats. There are so many people that own snakes and turtles. I have kept my fair share of reptiles for a long time.
My youngest son is a senior in high school and he has a couple snakes and turtles. I have asked him a bunch of times why he keeps his reptiles? He immediately turned that question back to me.
I kept reptiles for educational purposes and would go to schools for kids to see that these animals aren't the killers that people want to believe they are. But as far as a true pet, I love my dog. If I wasn't so allergic to cats, I am sure that I'd have one too.
Reptiles don't show emotions and doesn't love you back as much as you want to believe they do. Now I have personally seen a couple of common snapping turtles that have made me question this.
Whenever you have a turtles and that turtle sees you and starts trying to climb out of his enclosure, it's a pretty cool thing to watch. Then the kicker of all this is funny. The freaking snapping turtle wants to be picked up and held!!!! If my friend is sitting on the couch, his turtle is sitting on his lap with his head out and I mean stretched out sleeping!!!
Anyway I thought that's a cool story to share. But as far as this video goes. Yes animals are pretty smart in their own ways. If they weren't smart, they would have been eaten by predators. Peace out everyone and take care.
They are so smart, work together in small groups that communicate with the larger local group.
There's more to corvids. Ravens have been observed to hold funerals to remember the recently deceased.
I remember like 30 years ago I had finished high-school and went to university...I couldn't believe what I saw there....I Had a psychology class and I'll never forget, first day of class we met in this giant lecture hall and I sat way in back left side...then I turn my head and see a crow sitting 2 rows down wearing a black suit and typing something into his laptop...I thought I was dreaming...ended up becoming good friends with this guy cause we were originally from same state...he did time in county 2 years when he got caught with a gun as first offender..wildest thing I ever saw
I highly recommend googling an article about crows disrupting trains in Japan. It was around 1996.
I once saw a Myna trying to break what seemed to be a nut by repeatedly throwing it on the concrete and inspecting it before trying again.
He didn't have a hammer?
@@The_Savage_Wombat No, I think he forgot it at his bird workshop.
I found a crow unable to fly anymore in the station surrounds. I phoned animal help, as they caught the bird and walked to the car where i stood the crow really looked very angry at me.
Few months later (i feed crows in that area) a crow comes walking up to me up to 2 meter. I understood it was the non flying crow that came to thank me. That same week i walked to the station, a crow came flying over the road to land near me, little time later another crow landed. The crow had a young one and came to show it proudly.
Great experience.
I interact with crows, jackdaws and magpies a lot and they are marvelous creatures.
Crows vocabulary is a complex combination of sequenced notes that by rearrangement, imply different meanings in their murder (group) of crows.
I imagine the scientists measuring brain activity in crows... did they use tiny EEG bands or mini fMRI machines?
And how do you explain to a crow that it needs to SIT STILL for the MRI? They taught dogs to do this - if you´re patient, you can teach a dog to do anything - but ...
@@CL-go2ji Teach a dog to teach a crow to sit still and be quiet.
@@The_Savage_Wombat ...in view of what I wrote, that is totaly logical.
That´s what I get for using absolutes.
I assume they strap them into some device that immobilizes them so they can be studied.
stick electrodes into brain?
I have crow friends. They bring me shinies when I leave them jerky and almonds
I’ve watched a crow untie a knot in a fast food bag to get to the food inside it. He didn’t tear in to the bag he used his beak and didn’t damage the bag at all.
When I was a kid, I would take my dog to the dog park. There was a crow who hung around there that I creatively named Crowey. Not only was Crowey extremely friendly, but he would play with the dogs and me. We would play fetch with a balled up wad of grass, and he would taunt the dogs.
Another crow pun would have been murder. 😂
Nice Dad joke
Human say, human very unique! No animal like human, human say! Human special! Human smart! Human... good?
I've been kind to the crows near my home since we got here; they've started protecting my place from hawks.
Ive had a few crows . Small from the nest. Great fun for the family. My youngest son didn't care much for "K" knocking on his window at dawn to be feed a bit of dog food. Aside from that, we loved him. Always good laughs and smiles . That was long ago. The others were when i was a youngster. Smart , mischievous and great free spirits for pets , on thier terms.
This lady is going on and on about Science of Crows...all you need to know is Crows are smart and very sociable if your lucky enough to befriend one...not to mention they will bring you gifts. Lots of Shinies.
Thanks for the video! This is definitely really cool, the convergent evolution!
Birds brain is 2 to 4 times denser than human or mammal brain. Ravens I think are most intelligent birds with politics and social hierarchy at the peak of possibility for birds, with the limiting tools that nature provided them. Just sharing From personal experiences and reading the similar comments, I’d say abstract thinking leads to higher intelligence to qualify for definition of consciousness as they're communicating their intent vocally, knowing we can understand it if we were as smart as they are. And they always want something and they came to you or your trail to take it. They make plans for future
the way this video was prefaced by acknowledging so many cultures who hinted at this knowledge ages before science took the idea seriously is really some of the top tier reasons why i will always support sci show
Corvids, octopuses and humans... All we need are some portia spiders and sentient gray-goo and we can start exploring the galaxy (with the help of an AI built out of ants, of course)
I have long held that the primary difference between the success of humans vs those of many bird species is not their intelligence, but rather that humans possess an opposable thumb. There are many sentient species on this planet, yet we prefer to look for sentience in places to distant to get to in any reasonable amount of time. If we cannot communicate with the sentient life of our own planet, what makes us think we will have any chance of even recognizing communication coming from across the stars? Maybe we should learn to walk before we try to run.
I’ve made crow friends over a period of 7 years they bring me gifts, and follow me to the supermarket nearby and wait then follow me back. There’s quite a lot congregate on my, rooftop but they won’t let my neighbour come onto my driveway to talk to me, divebomb her 😬
5:54 so Crows are running Macintosh. understandable, have a nice day.
I’ve seen a husky-shepherd go get a really big stick to get his soccer ball out of a tree
It’s not surprising at all that different animals have independently developed consciousness
Definitely need more episodes with Rose
Agreed, she's a great host!
I worked at a BBQ joint. I interacted and fed crows. They would drop ribs on me blocks away.
I’d say as far as birds go they’re in the top 3 smartest birds.
I like to now use "unalive two animal abusrs with one stone" instead
This lady really reminds me of Michelle,a girl I use to know,good memories crows got
As a child we would play at elementary school during the summer. We would jump the fence to play baseball, soccer, handball, etc.
One day a baby crow had fallen from it's nest near the roof, I walked over and tried to climb up to put it back. A few minutes later I noticed a bunch of crows lining up across the roof top. One by one they began circling me. They would fly close to my head...when I'd look up another crow would attack my hands trying to free the baby. They literally strategized to get their baby back.
When I dropped the baby all of the crows watching flew down and took turns scratching the top of my head. I had to run and jump on a fence to escape.
About a week later some friends and I went to play at the school. As we arrived the crows began caring loudly. They sat staring at us from the roof. I got scar3d and left.
Later I asked my friends what the birds did. They flew away as soon as I left.
These birds remembered me!
Cool piece. Love your face. A joy to see.
most of us cant see, its a bird, not an alien, but crows behavior, is above and beyond instinct. We trained them to understand us by them observing, studying and even predicting our actions based on our individual lifestyle like an alien intelligence would.
My grandson would take apart and reassemble his rocking swing at 1 year old. He had a screw driver. He hasnt used a tool again, he's 21..🤣
It makes me wonder how a crow would design an experiment to test if humans were intelligent 🤔
I yesterday was feeding my 5 feral cats and heard 2 crows, and I threw some cat food and kind of laughed... NOT thinking they'd eat it 😮 I didn't see the crows eat it, but yesterday a crow DROPPED a walnut in my yard!! 😮 First of all, WT HECK?? I came here to see if I'm losing my mind 😮 Sounds like I made some friends 😊 Where'd they get a walnut too, by the way???
5:15-5:29 hey babe wake up, new mode of consciousness dropped
The consciousness bit, if the description of the study here is really the whole story, is very weak. If there are motor outputs in that area, then _of course_ they would be able to find correlates with what the bird _does_ independently of the ambiguous sensory signal. At some point in the brain, the action, including recalling the conditioned response, _has to_ exist; otherwise, the subject isn't going to do anything.
Searching for consciousness in the brain is extraordinarily slippery this way. The stimulus and the response are in a chain of causal connections, so you can follow the signal around the brain all you want starting from either end, but the truth is that we don't even have a phenomenological criteria for what it is we're looking for. All we _really_ know is that it happens in our brain. Before we evaluate other species for consciousness, we need to study it in humans until we finally even know what questions to ask about an animal brain.
For what it's worth, finding "neural correlates", some set of neurons that are responsible for doing _whatever it is_ that consciousness does, feels a lot like a forced division in the same way that dualism was/is. Back when we first started studying the brain, the default position went like this: Sensory signals enter your brain through nerves; we know this because injuring these nerves prevents us from using those senses. We know that nerves carry motor signals out of the brain, with evidence from both nerve injuries and direct electrical stimulation. Somewhere in between, though, all of the information is transmitted to your incorporeal soul, which must reflect on what it sees, feels, and knows, and prepare a response, which must then transmit its free will to the brain in order to work the muscles. As the decades went on, we identified function after function that some set of neurons could itself perform, by precisely defining the task, then finding neurons that fit the bill. Each time, the incorporeal soul was squished further into a narrower territory by the corporeal brain's capabilities. Today, there is essentially nothing left for the soul to do.
When we study consciousness in humans and ask what anatomy of the brain performs it, we are assuming that it will perform a function equivalent to the soul. It will have access to the breadth of our sensory inputs, it will integrate memory and emotions to decide what actions to take, and its output will flow to the motor cortex. Then, we expect to be able to look at that arrangement of neurons and recognize how and why it forms consciousness. This last step is the very same magical thinking we just got over with the soul. We still think of our consciousness as being some kind of magic, even if it lives in a lump of gray matter. How could we possibly recognize this set of neurons from others? Any functional arrangement we see will always be rejected, because it fails to be as abstract, phenomenological, and _magical_ as how we see our own experience. What could possibly fit that bill? What could we see under a microscope and say "there it is, that's me!"? Nothing.
It's hard to find animal consciousness because it's hard to find human consciousness. The idea that "maybe I'm the only real thinking person in the world" wouldn't be even the slightest bit compelling if we could at all touch the consciousness of anyone but ourselves. We take it on faith that other people think just as we do, how could we possibly be set up to answer the question of any other living thing?
Tangentially, perhaps that's why Vulcan mind melds are so fascinating to Trekkies-they're proof that yours is not the only mind in the universe
Crows are amazing I love them so much I feed mine every day and they're so cute
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I wonder if the emerging knowledge of birds' intelligence is what caused the movement from "bird brain" to "smooth brain" as an insult.
I once got too close to a crow's nest. The mother crow would always dive bomb at me and peck my head when she saw me in the neighborhood.
Oh... that pun at the end. You can tell Hank's a dad now when jokes like that appear in the scripts of shows he produces.
Interesting stuff!
Minor correction with your computer analogy: Macs are PCs. They're functionally no different, and use the same hardware. The only real difference is software, particularly the operating system, but you can run Mac OS on any other PC, or even install Windows on a Mac if you're really determined, and it will run.
Except she specifically said old macs, before they changed to Intel.
@@niqhtt Fair, but old Macs were still PCs. That's why the whole "PC vs. Mac" discussion is fundamentally flawed.
@@samarnadra That's... simply not true. "PC" isn't a brand or manufacturer, it just means "Personal Computer", which is what a Mac is. Macintosh was just a brand of PC manufactured by the Apple Computer Company. IBM also made PCs. Then dozens of other companies did. It was just Apple marketing which tried to sell Macs as something "different from a PC", when really they were just another brand of Apple PCs.
Minor correction with your correction: some modern Macs run ARM CPUs (e.g., the "M1" and "M2" chips), not AMD/Intel CPUs, so they're still sometimes different in certain fundamental ways.
@@unvexis That's true, but those Macs are still PCs, even though they're not running AMD or Intel CPUs.
I have been outsmarted by: Crows; grouse; deer; mice; racoons; rats; woodchucks; chipmunks; red squirrels; gray squirrels; fox squirrels; otters; Bass; trout; ducks; dogs; cats; fox and some I have forgotten. They do not have the 'software' to delve into Algebra or quantum physics, but that does not mean they are just dumb animals.
Hell, we barely have the software to delve into quantum physics!
@@awaredeshmukh3202 99.999999999999999999% of us don't. LOL
If conciousness is something that evolves convergently, similar to the way things keep evolving into crabs, it prompts a few questions for whatever remains of humanity if we survive long enough to "figure out" conciousness: What does awareness evolve into? Where can it go from here? What can we do with it, and what should we do with it?
I'm a simple woman, I see crows, I click!
I welcome our new corvid overlords
It's sad the way intelligent octopusses are treated, eaten, etc.