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. 2016 Aug 10;3(8):160439.
doi: 10.1098/rsos.160439. eCollection 2016 Aug.

Tool bending in New Caledonian crows

Christian Rutz  1 , Shoko Sugasawa  1 , Jessica E M van der Wal  1 , Barbara C Klump  1 , James J H St Clair  1
Affiliations

Tool bending in New Caledonian crows

Christian Rutz et al. R Soc Open Sci. .

Abstract

'Betty' the New Caledonian crow astonished the world when she 'spontaneously' bent straight pieces of garden wire into hooked foraging tools. Recent field experiments have revealed that tool bending is part of the species' natural behavioural repertoire, providing important context for interpreting Betty's iconic wire-bending feat. More generally, this discovery provides a compelling illustration of how natural history observations can inform laboratory-based research into the cognitive capacities of non-human animals.

Keywords: Corvus moneduloides; comparative cognition; innovation; insight; intelligence; tool use.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Tool-bending behaviour in New Caledonian crows. (a) ‘Betty’ about to use a bent piece of garden wire to lift a baited container from a vertical tube (from [1]; reproduced with permission from AAAS). (b–d) Temporarily captive crows using a range of techniques for bending the shaft of hooked stick tools during natural tool manufacture (from [4,7]).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Klump BC, Sugasawa S, St Clair JJH, Rutz C. 2015. Hook tool manufacture in New Caledonian crows: behavioural variation and the influence of raw materials. BMC Biol. 13, 97 (doi:10.1186/s12915-015-0204-7) - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Shumaker RW, Walkup KR, Beck BB. 2011. Animal tool behavior: the use and manufacture of tools by animals. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

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