When Your IQ Is Human like

Do you know why crocodiles don't eat these birds? Because they need their help. Crocodiles simply can't reach their teeth and clean them themselves. Ants are probably the only creatures that never need anyone's help. Ants can do everything. They invented jobs, mastered agriculture, building, the art of war. They never help anyone else and work only for the benefit of the colony. But there are creatures that can make ants work for them. And their intelligence is on The intelligence of corvids, that is, ravens, crows and their relatives, is really similar to that of a human. Scientists even managed to measure it. Of course, birds didn't have to pass human IQ tests. That'd be weird. A group of New Caledonian crows were tested using special materials. During the test, it turned out that crows have a rough idea how simple physics can help them solve the problem. As a result, it was estimated crows have the same intelligence as a 7-year-old. And this is really impressive. Especially for an animal that's not a primate. You know, primates are always ahead here. But when it comes to lab experiments, one can doubt if crows are really that smart. Maybe they were just trained by the scientists to announce the discovery later. Steve, why'd you write that? You can't be so distrustful. Whatever the case, all doubts vanish right away if you see what corvids can do in the wild. For example, check out this crow. It's been sitting on a quite common tap because it must be thirsty. Still, it's a bird and a bird can't possibly… Wait, what? Did the crow just turn the valve? I can't believe it actually opened the tap to drink. It also acts as if that's nothing special. Actually, corvids sometimes act quite weird. But at the same time, they're so ingenious you can hardly wrap your mind around it. What kind of person in their right mind would climb into an anthill and allow ants to run over their body? And that's exactly what birds do. Crows let insects climb their legs and feathers, sometimes allowing dozens of ants to crawl back and forth at the same time. Not because they love being tickled. The main theory is that this ant bath helps the birds get clean and, in particular, get rid of bacteria and other parasites that can live in feathers. Not even suspecting they're working for the crow, ants can simply eat some parasites, and some of the pests will die after exposure to formic acid. Also, all that ant treatment sort of helps soothe the irritation that comes with molting. 100% natural balm for the most sensitive skin. This, in fact, is quite normal in the animal world. Bathing in anthills, or anting, is quite a rare phenomenon, but birds do it for the sake of deep cleaning. You know, when regular bathing and beak aren't enough? Imagine the shock of the first crow that fell into an anthill and suddenly discovered that it felt nice. Alright, let's leave the ants alone. After all, corvids had a lot of time to learn how to use the features of the animal world for their benefit. What about exploiting humans? Well, not the humans themselves yet, only their tools. Honestly, I couldn't even believe what I was seeing. The raven saw a fishing rod left by a man, realised there must be a fish at the other end, and pulled it out. It didn't just grab a rod and start pulling upwards, it clearly understood how the fishing line works. When I showed this video to Steve, I thought he'd be impressed too. But Steve showed me this in return. At first glance, it seems that crows are pecking holes in the ice to drink. Indeed, they often do this when they lose access to water during cold times, nothing weird about it. And it seems like the crow was even chewing snow. When suddenly, it pulled out a fish. It made a hole in the ice and somehow guessed the fish would be right below. How? I mean, how? Oh look, the second crow did it too. One, wait, two fish. Come on, is that a pond or a can with food? Actually, it seems like corvids learned to use literally everything that surrounds them for their benefit. Ants, fishing rods, water supply systems, humans. And I'm not talking about begging and not even about stealing snacks from gaping tourists. We'll get back to that a bit later. For now, let's observe the Tower of London. At least six ravens live there. It's believed they guard the crown with their presence and actually they're one of the symbols of the fortress. So people take good care of them and the birds understand this. One day, one of the long-lived ravens died. Of course, there was a lot of commotion around this and another raven noticed this and also pretended to be dead. His trick was so convincing, the bird keeper believed it, picked up the corpse. At that moment, the raven suddenly came to life, bit the man's finger and, I quote, croaked huge raven laughs. Tell me, why did he do it? Seems like that was just for fun. Although not all corvids act like that for the sake of fun, these are magpies, other relatives of crows who also play dead. The young magpie lying on the grass simply doesn't want to fly home with the parents. Look, it really doesn't want to. No way. Damn. It looks like they're waking the kid up for school early in the morning. You know when you ask for another five minutes and they pull you by the leg right at that moment? What, that only happened to me? Or maybe this young magpie just wanted to put on a show in front of tourists. How did he know there were tourists around? In fact, it's easy for them because corvids can distinguish between human languages. As we study birds, the birds study us too. In 2020, a study was conducted at Keio University. Crows in Japan listened to recordings and they immediately reacted more strongly to the ones in unfamiliar languages. But why? Crows can't just have a thirst for the unknown without some goal in mind. These birds have even learned to use tourists for their benefit. Unlike locals, they're more often willing to share food, which means they can be used. You just need to get closer at the right time. But one of the most impressive abilities of corvids, and ravens in particular, is certainly the ability to speak. Today, it's believed they can pronounce about 10 times fewer words than parrots, but they imitate human speech with great skill. Besides, they perfectly reproduce any other sounds. Although ravens have no teeth, lips, or vocal cords, that is everything that allows humans to speak, they do have a syrinx, their own vocal organ, and that's enough. While scientists seriously doubt ravens understand at least part of what they say, but we're actually dealing with the smartest birds on the planet here, I wouldn't be surprised if they're just gaining experience. Maybe the ravens keep learning to reveal something very important to all of humanity one day. Give me food! Jokes aside, corvids really have a lot of potential when it comes to learning, especially when they're promised peanuts for good performance. Tech expert Josh Klein found out it's quite possible to teach a crow to exchange coins for treats using a special vending machine. Birds quickly recognize the connection between peanuts and coins, understand the coins must be placed in the slot, just imagine what future this research can promise. As far as I understand, Klein didn't do the experiments with wild crows yet, but if he could train these birds, crows could become, well, valuable members of society, or used to steal change from other people. Just saying. And then I thought, corvids have been around for centuries, they have amazing intellect, how come they've never been caught doing crime? I already explained once why very smart people choose the path of crime, so why should birds be any worse? Or better? Whatever. And you know what? In 2016, in Vancouver, a crow who happened to be at the crime scene stole the criminal's knife. I mean, it just picked up the weapon, the most important piece of evidence, and flew away. The police had to chase it, but the bird, apparently realizing he was being followed, dropped the knife. Why would a crow need a knife in the first place? But the story of stealing the evidence not only drew the attention of people, they also recognized the bird. It turned out to be a male American crow nicknamed Canuck, a quite well-known crow in Vancouver. He was raised by a local, so Canuck is not afraid of people. And not only that, sometimes he even acts like a person. Like when he's trying to drink someone's coffee or even taking the subway. Yes, Canuck just got into the train at one of the stations, hopped on the seat during the journey, looked for food, then calmly got off at another station. Indeed, why fly when you're smart enough to use public transport? Also, when you're smart enough, you realize it's important to stay clean. You don't even have to use hands. The rooks living in the Puy-de-Feu theme park in France learned to pick up cigarette butts and throw them in the trash. Of course, the birds needed some encouragement. They were given treats. But the fact still stands, they say that the birds were trained not only to make the park cleaner, but also to discourage people from littering. That time when even a rook knows how the trash can works. Ravens, of course, know that too. This video filmed in Haines, Alaska shows a smart raven trying to unlock a weighted trash can. The heavier lids are usually used to keep the trash from being pillaged by animals, but the raven doesn't care at all. It releases the clasp with its leg, fastens its beak under it. Come on, you can do it. Got it. With one clasp removed, all that's left is to remove this last obstacle and... Is that a pizza box? Did you seriously do all this for a pizza box? Okay, okay. Ravens in Alaska are capable of more than that. They pester bald eagles. They steal food from the backs of pickup trucks. Once, several birds even stole 12 eggs out of the car one by one. They just opened the box and took one egg at a time into their nest. When the owner of the car returned, all the eggs were already stolen by the ravens. And then it suddenly dawned on me. In Middle Ages, ravens, and even crows, were often considered servants of dark forces, harbingers of trouble and stuff like that. What if that was the intelligence that got the poor birds a bad rap? I had to ask Steve for help, but even together we didn't find proof of this theory. But we found something else. The authors of the book, in the company of crows and ravens, John Marsliff and Tony Angel, suggested a very interesting theory. Perhaps the interaction between ancient people and corvids helped us evolve. It sounds a little weird, but just imagine. Our distant ancestors, who didn't possess a modern level of intelligence, had to constantly protect their prey from smart and voracious birds. Situations like that required actions. So people began to form groups, cooperate, and then, through social connections, they learned to fight dangerous predators. And then they came up with YouTube, Bitcoin, and launched a car into space. Thanks to the birds! If this is at least partially true, then the corvids pushed us to evolve, while falling behind in the evolutionary race. Maybe that's why they like to discuss people so much now. Crows don't just hang out in groups, but they actively share information with each other, spreading something like bird gossip. And I doubt they say nice things about us. For example, if you somehow offend one bird, most likely its friends will find out about it. Then friends of these friends. Then, well, in short, you get the idea. The more crows know you're a bad person, the more likely the offended bird decides to take revenge and call for help. Of course, it's a pity scientists haven't figured out how to decipher the language corvids speak. I mean, they can guess some sounds mean joy, some have to do with food, and some are crow curses aimed towards someone's relatives. But we'll hardly be able to find out exactly what these birds think about us in the near future. Though we know for sure ravens use gestures to communicate. For example, they pointed objects using their beaks, attracting the attention of their relatives. And this works. I know it may not seem surprising to you, but here's the fact. Of all the animals in the wild, only primates can do something like that. Do you see how unique the ability to just point at something has suddenly become? See you later.