Crows using compound tools

New Caledonian crows are able to create tools by combining two or more otherwise non-functional elements, an ability so far observed only in humans and great apes. An international team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology and the University of Oxford has shown that these birds can create long reaching tools out of short combinable parts in a study with birds of the same species as the famous Betty, the first animal shown to be able to create a hooked tool by bending a pliable material. Although the underlying cognitive processes remain opaque for now, the study demonstrates that the crows possess highly flexible abilities that allow them to solve complex problems involving anticipation of the properties of objects they have never seen.