Clever Corvids: unique beaks for tool use (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, March 23, 2016, 13:59 (3167 days ago) @ David Turell

Dhw: It doesn't matter when lessons begin, or how many lessons are needed, or when crows observe other crows using tools. Once the first clever crow has come up with his/her “invention”, there are perfectly simple ways in which other crows can take it up. God did not need to preprogramme every Caledonian crow to start using 
tools.
DAVID: Only when observation shows crows watching other crows inventing is your point valid.-We're not talking here about the internal combustion engine or rockets to Mars! Here are the inventions:
QUOTE: “Such tools may range from sticks to barbed leaves or hooked twigs used to fish the crow's favorite food from the trunk of a tree - the juicy grubs of the longhorn beetle. The birds annoy their prey by poking around the grub's large, sensitive mandibles. When the grub grabs the stick or other tool, the bird hauls it out.”-Once upon a time, Christine Crow had an idea. She used a stick to get herself some lovely grub. Chris Crow was flying past when he saw her do it. “Caw!” said Chris, “that's a mighty fine idea. An' I reckon I c'd do the same with this here barbed leaf.” And as the years went by, Cressida and Crispin added their own variations, and beaks became adapted to the new method of grub-grabbing. And along came a middle-aged man with a long beard, and he took one look and said, “Holy Texas, you cawvids have just prooved mah theery of evolootion.”-
A note for the purists: I know the accent is a poor imitation, neither the crows nor Darwin came from Texas, and the crows are still crows so they don't prove the theory. But I would like to think this wonderful tale, which is offered free of charge to the world of all true believers and non-believers, teaches us that crows might be able to use sticks and leaves without needing to be preprogrammed 3.8 billion years ago.