How do New Caledonia crows learn their tool-making craft?

In October, 2010, blogger Brian Nelson summarized a study by researchers with the University of Auckland, with the purpose of finding out how New Caledonian crows were so successful at tool-making.

New Caledonian crows have long been recognized as expert tool-makers, but because they are less social than other crow species, researchers have been baffled about how they pass on their craft from generation to generation. A new study may offer answers, according to the BBC. The New Caledonian secret? Homeschooling.

Crows of all varieties are smart, but the native species from the South Pacific island of New Caledonia exhibit superior tool-making capabilities. In fact, they make the most sophisticated tools of any animal yet studied besides humans.

For instance, unlike many tool-using animals that fashion single-use tools, New Caledonian crows have been observed improving upon their tools over time. They even design their tools for appropriate use in the right or left hand depending on the requirements of the task, and they can string together multiple tool parts to reach food.

All of these abilities are impressive, but even more astounding is that they learn their craft despite a relatively limited social network. Most tool-making species, like humans, acquire their skills through instruction and by observing their peers. New Caledonian crows, however, are not highly social.

The mystery prompted Jenny Holzhaider and colleagues from the University of Auckland in New Zealand to observe New Caledonian crows in their natural habitat.

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Holzhaider spent 3400 hours to perform her research and issue her 122-page master’s thesis (not counting the 17 pages of references). With help from assistants, she set up an aviary and feeding tables, set up cameras and motion detectors, captured and worked with birds, counted birds and tool-making attempts, correlated these efforts with research that others had performed on related subjects, and recorded and analyzed the details.

If you wish to read a more detailed account of of her work, visit Holzhaider’s masters thesis which she kindly posted online.

Click next page to read about the non-invasive PET scan methodology of Dr. Marzluff in analyzing the reactions of American crows to faces.