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Bird Intelligence and Awareness

The research into the question of animal intelligence is highly controversial. The first piece of work to be published on the topic was considered taboo. The first to be published was by a man named Donald Griffin in a report named “The Question of Animal Awareness” in 1976. It was met with extreme criticism. Many researchers on this topic have been scared to support claims of animals being aware because they would be accused of being too sentimental and anthropomorphic (Cartmill). Since then, it has become less and less taboo and the public seems to enjoy much of this banter and movements for animal rights have spread at the grassroots level. Many researchers famed for their work with animals are now highly praised in their communities such as Jane Goodall and Richard Wagner. With the persistence of these pioneers of animal intelligence research, the scientific community to recognize animals awareness of the world is similar to our own. 

This essay will review three significant research studies on birds and corvids as they are some of the most intelligent animals with some of the smallest brains. Their brain is however very large in proportion to their body which could be a factor to their large intelligence and awareness of their environment. In an episode of Nova called, Bird Brain, it shows several birds solving many problems and a majority of which, they’ve never seen in the wild.Geese have been found to understand hierarchies described by something called transitive inference (Bird Brain). The exact study introduced the geese to some colored cards and behind the cards were a reward. When given a multitude of colors, some of which not previously shown, they were able to choose the color that would lead to the highest reward most of the time. In another example of intelligence, there was a box which had a reward in the center which was unreachable to the birds. There were four possible ways to retrieve the nut at the center and both the New Caledonian Crow and Kea Parrot were able to retrieve the nut using all 4 solutions. This meant that the animals needed to be aware of their surroundings and adapt, using their brains. The most interesting bit is that these crows are known to use tools in the wild as they did with this box. Tool-making and use of tools is something that was only thought of to be a trait of humans and that no other animal could. Now the highly intelligent animals like birds and primates are also able to do the same. Although they are not using the tools with quite as much effectiveness as humans, this shows that they may share some sort of cognition level with humans.

Another aspect that will be discussed in this essay is not only the intelligence of a single individual but the intelligence of some of the species and their socialiability as well as their ability to have structure within their communities. Specifically social learning, cooperation as well as things like social awareness and grieving. I will be diving into things like social learning in which something between crows is learned and passed on. For example, *Dr. John M. Marzluff at the University of Washington captured several crows with a mask on when they were released, Dr. Marzluff found that entire flocks of crows would then be scolding the mask wearer as they walked. Many more crows had been screaming and yelling and he concluded that the crows were able to learn from each other that the individual in the mask was dangerous. There are many examples like this one on the University of Washington campus. This essay will discuss the research done on birds and their intelligence, ability to create and use tools, and their social skills and their awareness of their environment.

Humans are very intelligent and one thing we have attributed to our intelligence is emotion. We often feel satisfied when we do things we like to do or are good at. Sometimes we can improve our affective state by doing things like helping others and giving to charity (altruism), being active, and finishing our to-do lists and life goals. What about animals? Animals will sometimes act altruistically as well. Elephants have been seen showing what looks like empathy by actions like removing tranquilizing darts from others, assisting others that are injured, and spraying down other elephants injuries (Morell). The scientific community however, doesn’t let the community declare that animals feel emotion without accusations of being “overly anthropomorphic” (McCoy). Well it seems graduate student at Harvard, Dakota McCoy has actually found some evidence in an experiment on New Caledonian Crows that they show some optimism after using methods popular in human psychology research. The method used here is a cognitive bias test. Cognitive bias in psychology is a term used to describe the phenomenon in which humans approach specific situations in particular ways due to a past experience, memory, or even something someone else told them (Cherry). An example would be someone refused to pet a German Shepherd because as a child they were attacked by a chihuahua. In this specific test, McCoy and others found that after using tools, crows would actually act more optimistically! The crows were presented with a box in one of three positions. In one postion, there would be three pieces of meat and the opposite position would only have one piece of meat. The final position was just an ambiguous box and the researcher would measure the approach time and quicker approaches would imply a positive affective state. They put the crows through four conditions then measured the latency at which they approached the ambiguous box. The two conditions that are the focus of the test is the difference between approach times after having acquired food using a tool and after having acquire food with no tool (using their beak). These researchers did think that a difference in these two conditions might be attributed to the fact that using a tool took more effort than just grabbing the food with their beaks. They then created two control conditions to compare; grabbing four pieces of food at four corners of the room and just taking four pieces of food on the table directly in front of them. This was to measure the latency between a more effortful and easy condition to compare to the tool and no-tool conditions. Their hypothesis was, “If tool use led to increased positive affect, we predicted that birds would be more optimistic after using a tool, rather than just their beak, to gain food, but not when putting more effort into gaining food compared to receiving it easily,” (McCoy 2).  The results were statistically significant that, “New Caledonian crows approached ambiguous stimuli faster after using a tool to gain food rather than just their beak and gaining freely available food from one location rather than collecting it from multiple locations,” (McCoy 3). 

 

These results may suggest that these crows evolved to be motivated intrinsically to use tools in their environments. The heaviest implication of this study is that, “a complex, species-specific activity performed by the animals themselves—can improve the affective state of animals,” (McCoy 4). If confirmed by more research that these animal specific behaviors can provide enrichment to their well-being, there could one day be enough evidence to prove animals may feel emotion. This also may help give animal handlers a tip on how to treat domesticated animals in the most humane and respectful way possible.

Tool use is seen as a marker of intelligence which explains why New Caledonian Crows and chimpanzees are seen as so intelligent. Rooks are in the same family as these crows (corvids) and yet they don’t use tools in the wild but are considered equally as intelligent (Bird 10370). Bird and his colleagues investigate the abilities of rooks to use tools in this study. There are several setups in this experiment but the general structure is that there is an unreachable platform in which a worm sits on. The platform can only be reached if it is collapsed. Their is a tube above the platform that is long enough for the rook to be unable to reach the platform with its beak. The solution in the first part of the study has to do with dropping stones onto the platform to collapse it and reach the worm. The interesting bit is that the birds would choose the largest rocks to drop down the platform even though any rock would do and when the researchers replaced the tube with one significantly smaller, the rooks opted for the smaller rocks to fit in the tube ( Bird 10371). Even more interesting is they would even opt to drop long but slim rocks down the smaller tube and would also orientate them correctly to fit in the tube, similar to how a young toddler would fit a square peg in a square hole. The rooks were also tested for their ability to solve the problem using sticks and were able to collapse the platform using the stick to push on the platform. They were also tested on their ability to use a hook to lift a bucket up through a similar tube and were able to successfully lift the bucket with the worm and even after this they were able to manufacture their own hook out of a straight piece of wire (Bird 10374). It was interesting to see that these results contradict scientific suggestions that, “tool use was the driving force behind the evolution of advanced physical intelligence,” (10374). It was mentioned in this article that each species will use their ability to use tools in the wild based on their environmental needs. Tool use is only necessary in which resources are scarce or safety is compromised and these factors may be lacking in some species’ immediate surroundings.

Another signal of intelligence is a species ability to be social and to solve problems together. Amanda Seed, Nathan J. Emery, and Nicola S. Clayton found evidence that Rooks are also able to solve problems socially as well. The setup of this research is that there is an unreachable platform with a reward resting on it. In order to reach it, two rooks must pull on both strings to collapse the platform. If only one subject were to pull on it, the string would unthread and they would be unable to solve the problem. These rooks were successful most of the time and more importantly they were successful without any training, very similar to chimpanzees (Seed et. al.). This raises the question that perhaps these animals were able to communicate in their own way that they needed to cooperate to reach the food. One difference between the rooks and chimpanzees is that the birds had no problem or preference splitting the reward, even if it was unevenly distributed but the chimpanzees did. Seed and her colleagues mentioned that this may be due to the fact that chimpanzees may have more complex social relationships like alpha males and other complexities (Seed).

Research on animals intelligence has developed into a strong niche of scientific research. It began as a joke among the community to one that is now strongly supported by the community. This research should tell us that corvids, even though they have small brains, are one of the most intelligent species on the planet. This knowledge should change our perceptions about animal intelligence and even animal emotion or at least to begin questioning and reasoning that animals can feel emotion. From some time searching through social media sites and other articles, I see some examples of these corvids doing some things that many toddlers I know would also do. Annoy their conspecifics, hang upside down playfully, or even play in the snow. Some problems these birds are facing are the loosening of legislation that allows for them to be killed without repercussions. With some new knowledge that these animals may be aware of their surroundings like we are, there might need to be some changes to be more ethically responsible for the world and the environment.

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Works Cited

Bird, Christopher D., and Nathan J. Emery. “Insightful Problem Solving and Creative Tool  

Modification by Captive Nontool-Using Rooks.” PNAS, National Academy of Sciences, 23 June 2009, www.pnas.org/content/106/25/10370.

Cartmill, Matt. “The Problem of Animal Consciousness, Do Horses Gallop in Their Sleep?” The 

Problem of Animal Consciousness, www.ee.columbia.edu/~shane/words/animalconsciousness.htm.

Cherry, Kendra. “How Cognitive Biases Influence How You Think and Act.” Verywell Mind, 

  Verywell Mind, 7 May 2019, www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-cognitive-bias-2794963.

Coules, Victoria. “Bird Brain.” Nova, season 44, episode 27, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), 

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Emery, Nathan J., and Nicola S. Clayton. “The Mentality of Crows: Convergent Evolution of 

Intelligence in Corvids and Apes.” Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 10 Dec. 2004, science.sciencemag.org/content/306/5703/1903.full.

Griffin, Donald Redfield. The Question of Animal Awareness. The Rockefeller University Press , 

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Audubon, 3 May 2019, www.audubon.org/news/did-crows-actually-make-these-gifts-human-who-feeds-them.

Morell, Virginia. “It's Time to Accept That Elephants, Like Us, Are Empathetic Beings.” National 

Geographic, National Geographic Society, 23 Feb. 2014, news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/02/140221-elephants-poaching-empathy-grief-extinction-science/.

Nijhuis, Michelle. “Friend or Foe? Crows Never Forget a Face, It Seems.” The New York Times, 

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PBS. “NATURE | Ravens | Stealing the Catch | PBS.” YouTube, YouTube, 6 Dec. 2007, 

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Seed, Amanda, et al. “Cooperative Problem Solving in Rooks (Corvus Frugilegus).” 

Research Gate, 9 July 2008, www.researchgate.net/publication/5488782_Cooperative_problem_solving_in_rooks_Corvus_frugilegus.

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