Study Finds Crows To Be Capable of Recursion — A Cognitive Ability Thought To Be Unique To Humans And Other Primates

Crows are some of the smartest creatures in the animal kingdom. According to a new study, crows possess the cognitive ability for one of the linguistic elements that make human language so complex. The insult 'birdbrain' probably stems from the misconception that birds possess little to no intelligence since they have very tiny, nut-sized brains. But this age-old analogy couldn't be further from the truth, considering how savvy these creatures have proven themselves to be.

Planning for the future isn't only a human trait. For example squirrels cache nuts to store food for lean times. Crows not only plan for future events but consider the thinking of other crows. When a crow caches food, it looks around to see if it's being observed. If it sees another animal is watching, the crow will pretend to hide its treasure, but will really stash it in its feathers. The crow then flies away to find a new secret spot. If a crow sees another crow hiding its prize, it knows about this little game of bait-and-switch and won't be fooled. Instead, it will follow the first crow to discover its new hoard.