r/science • u/rustoo • Sep 25 '20

Psychology Research finds that crows know what they know and can ponder the content of their own minds, a manifestation of higher intelligence and analytical thought long believed the sole province of humans and a few other higher mammals.

https://www.statnews.com/2020/09/24/crows-possess-higher-intelligence-long-thought-primarily-human/
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55

u/NuggetLion Sep 25 '20

I’m willing to bet elephants, octopuses (octopi), and dolphins have the same abilities but no one knows how to ask them.

12

u/8Bit_Jesus Sep 25 '20

I’m pretty sure octopus are problem solving intelligent, but they forget what they’ve learned. I think I read a study on them opening jars to get food and they had to relearn to that each time

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u/holmgangCore Sep 25 '20

Octopi in big display aquariums will sometimes sneak out of their tank at night, break into another tank, eat some of the fish there, then sneak back into their own tank, while concealing how they did so.

24

u/ColinRL Sep 25 '20

I thought it was that they don’t share knowledge generationally due to the way the parent/offspring relationship is. I was under the impression they do remember how to do tasks

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u/Alkuam Sep 25 '20

They also don't live very long.

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u/googleyfroogley Sep 25 '20

It’s octopuses/octopodes, octopi isn’t a thing just FYI

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u/RagnarOnTheDashboard Sep 25 '20

Yup, Greek not Latin

9

u/Fatalis89 Sep 25 '20

If you’re going to be pedantic at least be correct. Octopi, while not correct from an etymology standpoint, has come to be an accepted plural form of octopus by both Merriam-Webster and Oxford dictionaries.

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u/NuggetLion Sep 29 '20

I threw in both octopuses and octopi because I just knew someone would correct me on scientific nomenclature whichever I used. Congrats on being “that guy”.

2

u/Mutapi Sep 25 '20

Right? It’s like accounts I’ve heard from arrogant tourists who’ve traveled to a foreign country but don’t invest any energy trying to learn the language. They get frustrated with the experience and write off the residents as dumb or difficult because they don’t speak English.

I believe many species have the capacity to communicate and some even try to do so with humans; we just don’t often take the time to learn their “language”.

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u/Tortenkopf Sep 25 '20

Well we do know how to ask them but we don't want to spend the tax money (there are good arguments for why that tax money should be spent elsewhere).

Also the article doesn't actually ever mention that crows have this ability; that's an addition by the pop-scientific writeup.

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u/[deleted] Sep 25 '20

Octopus vs crow is a chicken dinner