Aesops Fables included the tale of The Crow and the Pitcher in which a Crow, half-dead with thirst, came upon a Pitcher which had once been full of water; but when the Crow put its beak into the mouth of the Pitcher he found that only very little water was left in it, and that he could not reach far enough down to get at it.
Then a thought came to him, and he took a pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher. Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the Pitcher and he repeated this trick until the water level rose within reach and he slaked his thirst and saved his life.
Well, scientists have found that there may be a basis in truth in this fable, because a rook has been seen to do precisely that same trick when faced with a similar situation .... "The rooks have to put multiple stones in the tube until the worm floats to the top" said Dr Nathan Emery. The four birds did just that. Two, called Cook and Fry, raised the water-level enough to grab the floating feast the very first time that they were presented with the test, while the other two Connelly and Monroe, were successful on their second attempt.
Animal intelligence never ceases to surprise us. especially tool and problem solving amongst birds.
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