by applewood

Intelligence is rooted in the brain. Clever primates – including humans – have a particular structure in their brains called the neocortex. It is thought that this helps to make advanced cognition possible. Corvids, notably, do not have this structure. They have instead evolved densely packed clusters of neurons that afford them similar mental prowess.

The specific kind of brain they have doesn’t really matter – corvids and primates share some of the same basic capabilities in terms of problem-solving and plasticity, or being able to adapt and change in the face of new information and experiences. This is an example of convergent evolution, where completely different evolutionary histories have led to the same feature or behaviour.

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Ranking the intelligence of animals seems an increasingly pointless exercise when one considers the really important thing: how well that animal is adapted to its niche. Intelligence is, first and foremost, a means towards specialisation.

As Rutz says, analysis of crows’ intelligence “cannot be divorced from the natural history of the animal”. And New Caledonians are far from the only non-human species to have evolved the ability to use tools. The list of other animals that share this trait includes chimpanzees, parrots, alligators and even crabs.

Previously, on Hubski

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