Image courtesy of American Crow - Singing Sands, Bruce Peninsula National Park, Ontario, Canada -- 2007 June, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Joel Kontinen
Crows may have
bird-brains, but the feathered creatures can understand the highly abstract
concept of zero, a new research suggests.
But having bird brains does not mean they are stupid.
”In the new study, published June 2 in The Journal of Neuroscience, the team ran experiments with two male carrion crows (Corvus corone),
during which the birds sat on a wooden perch and interacted with a computer
monitor in front of them. In each trial, a grey screen containing zero to four
black dots popped up in front of the crows; this "sample" image was
followed by a "test" image containing either the same or a different
number of dots. “
The crows were able to know the
difference between two and three and also zero.
Source:
Lanese. Nicoletta. 2021. Crows understand the 'concept of zero' (despite their bird brains) Live Science 15 June.
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