Summary
A new study shows that crows can control their vocalizations and correspond the number of those calls to a cue. The study adds to the growing laundry list of cognitive abilities that corvids (the bird family including crows, ravens, magpies, and jays) possess.
The study of carrion crows is the first to explicitly show that any other species besides humans can link voluntary vocalizations with an understanding of quantity. The researchers would present each crow with a number on a screen or a pre-recorded sound and then reward the bird with food if and when it produced the matching number of calls.
Liao plans to conduct additional experiments exploring how crows might use vocalization numbers in the wild. He also hopes to examine the underlying brain systems supporting the newly discovered ability. What we learn about crows could help us better understand ourselves. “It’s not as if we’ve invented ways of thinking that are completely unique,” says Cantlon.
