As if we didn’t have enough to worry about with the robots, now we gotta worry about rapidly smartifying crows. We’ve known for a while that crows are capable of using tools, but a new article in the journal Science (catchy name) says that New Caledonian crows got mad skillz, using sticks to fish for beetle larvae:
This is a very specialized task, because the crows fish for just one beetle species (the wood boring longhorn beetle) in the trunk of a single species of tree (the candlenut tree).
Why that beetle in particular? If a crow eats just three of those larvae, that’s enough food for the day.
Old Caledonian crows, meanwhile, just sit around and complain how it’s not like back in their day before everyone started using these fancy sticks, by cracky.
Next up in the animal world: rapidly evolving anti-stick technology for wood boring longhorn beetle larvae.
I’ll stop now.
After this:
Stories You Might Like
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
