Crows are considered one among the neatest creatures on Earth. Their bodies are small, but they’ve “big” brains.
To prove how intelligent they are surely, scientists have subjected crows to all kinds of experiments through the years. Surprisingly, the outcomes show that crows are literally capable of creating extremely smart and versatile decisions.
Moreover, scientists have also proven that the crow can actually recognize individual human faces and remember them for a really very long time. What exactly makes these little birds so good?
How crows retain long-term memory
According to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in a journal written by John M. Marzluff and others, to check whether crows could distinguish individual humans, the team used rubber masks. They conducted an experiment on crows on the University of Washington.
Scientists wore a “dangerous” caveman mask while catching and banding wild crows (a secure but stressful process for the birds). Meanwhile, other researchers wore a “neutral” mask of a famous politician and easily walked around campus without disturbing the birds.
The results were very clear. The crows took aim on the caveman mask, making loud warning calls and swooping towards the wearer.
They completely ignored the neutral mask. This proved that the crows reacted not only to people normally, to their clothes and the best way they walked, but in addition to specific facial expression.
Moreover, the crows continued to react angrily to the damaging mask a few years after their first encounter, although that they had no other bad experiences with it. Scientists explain that that is as a consequence of the best way the crow’s brain processes danger.
When a crow feels threatened, its brain creates a much stronger memory of that specific face in comparison with on a regular basis, neutral events. Brain scans show that the sight of a threatening face prompts areas related to fear and emotional memory, very similarly to how the human brain works. In particular, crows use an area of the brain called nidopallium caudolateralewhich works just like the human prefrontal cortex, coping with complex decisions and long-term memory.
Sharing information with the herd
One of probably the most interesting elements of crows’ intelligence is their ability to share memories with other birds. A crow doesn’t have to experience a threat firsthand to know who to avoid. They transmit this information in two ways: through the flock and all the way down to their chicks. Amazing, right?
When an experienced crow spots a dangerous individual and sounds the alarm, other crows nearby observe the goal and take part. This allows birds that were never involved in the unique event to learn who poses a threat.
Moreover, parents also pass on these warnings to their children. Young crows stick with their parents for a very long time.
When a parent becomes indignant at a selected human face, the young bird learns to perceive that face as a threat. In this manner, the warning can last for generations.
On the campus of the University of Washington, crows have been responding to the caveman mask for greater than fifteen years, long after the primary crows within the study died. The birds currently responding to the mask weren’t even alive when the study began. It shows that they simply learned behaviors from the older generation.
For animals that live near humans, distinguishing between a friendly person offering food and a dangerous one that poses a threat generally is a matter of life and death. If you treat them well, they are going to ignore or tolerate you, but if you happen to treat them poorly, the complete herd may remember your face for a long time.
