[stutnerman]

i wanted to thank everyone for sharing the info on crows and ravens.

i found a site that discusses the use of tools by crows:

www.jcrows.com/crow.html

here you will find an article written by richard karel ("psychiatirc news", march 1, 1996) where he cites research conducted by gavin hunt, ph.d. of massey university in new zealand (from "nature", jan. 18, year???):

"crows were observed employing two distinctly different kinds of tools to forage for invertebrates such as insects, centipedes, and larvae...hunt observed both manufacture and use of a hooked tool made by plucking and stripping a barbed twig. he also observed the use, but not manufacture, of what he described as a 'stepped cut tool' with serrated edges......

gregory ball, ph.d., is a behavioral neuroendrocrinologist and associate professor of psychology at johns hopkins university in baltimore. from the perspectice of neuroanatomy 'people often talk about bird brains as if birds have small brains, but certain orders of birds have quite large brains for their size,' said ball. corvids, the family of birds that includes crows, ravens, and jays, have large brains for their body weight, ball noted."

below is a link to a video of a crow using a tool to get at something (food?):

uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ttmlvpohvdg

peace,
doug