#new caledonia crow
How crows connect
The New Caledonian crow is well-known for its ability to make and use tools to poke nutritious insects out of their hiding places.
An international team led by the University of St Andrews has studied the social networks of crows to understand how tool-use might spread between birds and across communities.
The team looked at the social interactions of wild New Caledonian crows in their tropical habitat. Each crow was fitted with a high-tech, miniature spy tag which provided a record of which crows met at any given time.
They found that providing the crows with food had a similar effect to putting out a plate of freshly baked cookies – individual crows hang around the supply which can accelerate the spread of interesting information.
Scientists still don’t know how much of their tool-use behaviour New Caledonian crows learn from each other, but the study shows that opportunities for information exchange are plenty, especially when important resources encourage birds to forage in the same place.
Images: James St Clair, James St Clair, Jolyon Troscianko
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