030 Crows Are Smarter Than You Think: The Brilliant Minds of the Bird World

Truth N Trends

They're more than just noisy birds. Crows and their relatives, ravens, are some of the most intelligent animals on the planet. Sophia and Charles explore the incredible, and sometimes unsettling, intelligence of corvids, from their ability to use tools to their complex social structures and even their uncanny ability to recognize human faces.

Transcript

00:00I'm Charles and with me is Sophia. Today we're talking about a group of birds that are way

00:13smarter than you think, crows and ravens. That's right, Charles. We often call people

00:17bird brains, but if a crow heard that, it would probably be offended. Crows, ravens,

00:23and their relatives are some of the most intelligent animals on the planet. They have the problem

00:28solving skills of a seven-year-old child. And they're not just smart, they're social. Yes,

00:33scientists have found that they can use tools, solve multi-step puzzles, and even plan for the

00:38future. There's a famous example of a crow that would take a tiny twig, shape it into a hook,

00:43and use it to get food out of a container. I have a limited knowledge of this,

00:47but it's a huge feat for an animal. It is, and it's not just a one-off thing. They can pass this

00:52knowledge down from one generation to the next. And what about their social behavior? I've heard

00:56about something called a crow funeral. It's a very fascinating phenomenon. When a crow dies,

01:02other crows will gather around the body. Scientists believe they're doing this to figure out what

01:07happened, to see if there's a predator or a danger they need to avoid. It's a very social and very

01:12intelligent way of learning. So they're not just mourning a loss. They're trying to learn from it.

01:17And here's the part that will creep you out. They remember human faces. Oh, no. Yes. Scientists in a

01:23study found that crows would remember the face of a person who had captured them. They would then

01:27share that information with other crows, and they would all mob that person when they saw them.

01:31So if you're nice to a crow, it'll remember you. If you're mean to a crow, it'll remember you and tell

01:36all of its friends. Exactly. And they have different accents in their calls, depending on the region

01:40they're from. So they're not just smart. They're also very social and very protective of their own.

01:45So Charles, it feels like we've covered all the incredible things about crows and ravens.

01:48They're not just birds. They're a window into a different kind of intelligence.

01:52They are. Thank you for being with us today. Until next time.

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