Pitch-black intelligence

Ravens and their relatives, carrion crows, hooded crows, rooks, jackdaws, magpies and jays, are so intelligent that they can sometimes even rival the intelligence of primates. Reichholf's studies of free-living and hand-reared corvids show that these unloved birds are capable of precisely recognizing their animal and human partners, as well as all other birds in the flock, punishing unfriendly creatures, deceiving their competitors when hiding carrion, or skillfully keeping wolves at bay. Carrion crows effortlessly rediscover walnuts hidden in the ground even months later. In Japan, it can even be observed that crows place nuts at traffic lights during red phases in front of cars to pick them up freshly cracked during the next red phase. Hardly anyone would have attributed such ingenuity to the unloved "black fellow". Does mankind perhaps struggle with corvids precisely because of their incredible intelligence? Bestselling author Josef H. Reichholf has found convincing answers to this question as well.


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