A team of German scientists has successfully taught crows to count aloud. The birds cawed from one to four times in response to numbers displayed on a screen or to auditory signals. For instance, a guitar chord signified one caw, while a drum roll indicated three caws.
The scientific community has long been aware of the remarkable cognitive abilities of crows. Russian researchers discovered that crows could count up to five and perform addition with numbers up to eight, although their results were interpreted indirectly.
Counting aloud is a more complex task, as it requires the birds not only to recognize the number but also to vocalize the correct number of caws.
The training method used by the German researchers is similar to teaching children. Before learning the names of numbers and their symbolic representations, children learn to match the number of spoken words with the quantity of objects. The crows demonstrated excellent learning abilities. After completing the task, they signaled their success by tapping a key on the screen with their beak and receiving a treat as a reward for a correct answer.
The most significant observation in the experiment was the pause before cawing. The crows took longer to think before longer sequences (three or four caws) than before shorter ones.
According to Professor John Marzluff, the birds need time to contemplate the task and to relay the signal from their brain to the muscles responsible for producing the sounds. This delay suggests that crows are indeed thinking.
Incidentally, recently, 140 renowned scientists from various countries signed a declaration stating that animals possess consciousness.
Photo: unsplash.com