Four rooks by the names of Cook, Connelly, Fry, and Monroe have upped estimates of birds' intelligence by mastering a series of challenges in which they had to use tools to get tasty worms. Researchers say that
the birds' skills rivalled those of well-known tool users such as chimpanzees and New Caledonian crows.... "The study shows the creativity and insight that rooks have when they solve problems," [BBC News]
, says study coauthor Nathan Emery. Their abilities are all the more remarkable, researchers say, because rooks are not known to use tools in the wild. In the laboratory tests, researchers devised a series of challenges in which the rooks had to figure out how to
release food from glass tubes. The first featured a worm on a platform that would collapse, allowing it to be eaten if a stone were nudged into the tube. All four birds completed the task. ...
