Emily Chan
Crows are already known for their remarkable smarts, but lately, they are proving to be some of the most intelligent animals on the planet.
Through a recent study published in the journal Science, a team of researchers has discovered that crows may have the same numerical skills as human toddlers.
The results of the study demonstrated that carrion crows produce a specific number of vocalizations in response to visual or auditory stimuli.
The birds are also able to count out loud between one and four, proving that numerical thinking is not just a human capability.
Scientists from the University of Tübingen in Germany trained three crows to caw between one and four times in response to an audio recording that was played for them.
A frequency sound was associated with four caws, a drum roll for three, the noise of a cash register for two, and a guitar chord for one.
In addition, the scientists showed the crows a screen with the Arabic numerals of the number of caws they were to vocalize.
When the crows were done vocalizing, they had to tap the screen to indicate they were finished counting. Each time they counted correctly, they received a mealworm as a reward.
The crows were correct more often than they were not. They had a 100 percent accuracy rate when counting to one, about a 60 percent success rate when counting to two, and a roughly 50 percent success rate for three.
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