Techie invents crow vending machine.

Like Dr. Marzluff, but independently, as a “techie” amateur crow researcher, Joshua Klein is concerned with society’s handling of animals considered to be pests, such as crows. He notes that such animals become adapted to living with humans, which generally includes scavenging behavior, and in return we try to rid society of these species.

He believes such animals may be able to fulfill roles that are complimentary to human civilization, due to their ability to learn. To test learning ability, he built a Skinner-type box which he characterizes as a crow vending machine. This machine teaches the crows, in 4 stages, to use “coins” to place into the machine to obtain a food reward.

As you have seen, Klein’s thesis is not that crows can be trained, but rather that humans might be creative enough to identify tasks crows might perform which are useful to humans, so that crow-human interaction does not involve extermination of crows.

Click next page to see how the talent of Betty, the tool-making New Caledonian crow, was discovered.