It turns out that crows can count out loud, making them the first animals other than humans to understand and vocalize the 'abstract concept of numbers'
Crows are known to have superior intelligence, such as being able to
Crows 'count' the number of self-generated vocalizations | Science
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl0984
Crows can deliberately plan how many calls to make | University of Tübingen
https://uni-tuebingen.de/en/university/news-and-publications/press-releases/press-releases/article/crows-can-deliberately-plan-how-many-calls-to-make/
Crows Can Actually Count Out Loud, Amazing New Study Shows : ScienceAlert
https://www.sciencealert.com/crows-can-actually-count-out-loud-amazing-new-study-shows
Although some animals, such as monkeys and honeybees , have the ability to understand numbers, humans were the only animals known to combine two sophisticated abilities - number processing and vocal control.
'The purposeful production of specific numbers of vocalizations requires a sophisticated combination of numerical ability and vocal control. It was unclear whether any other animal species possessed this ability,' Andreas Nieder of the University of Tübingen in Germany wrote in their paper.
In this study, Nieder and his team conducted an experiment using three carrion crows, known to have advanced numerical abilities such as understanding the concept of zero.
In the experiment, the crows were shown specific numbers or sounds and had to respond by making one to four sounds and then pressing a button to indicate they had finished answering.
As a result of the training, all three birds were able to produce the calls corresponding to the numbers. The time it took for the crows to respond after being presented with the task increased as the number of calls required increased. However, the time required was not related to the type of stimulus, whether it was a number or a sound, i.e. visual or auditory.
'This shows that crows are able to form an abstract numerical concept from the information presented to them and then use this to plan how many times they will crow,' Nieder explains.
In addition, the experiment confirmed that crows not only changed the number of calls they made, but also the calls themselves, and by analyzing the acoustic characteristics of one call, it was possible to predict how many calls a crow would make in total, according to Nieder.
However, the crows' answers were not perfect, and they sometimes made mistakes in counting. 'These mistakes, where they count more or less calls, happened when the crows forgot which calls they had already made or which calls they were going to make. By studying the acoustic properties of the calls, we were able to read these mistakes,' Nieder said.
By Steve Herring
The findings could help us better understand the communication abilities of wild birds, such as chickadees, which are known to vary the number of times they emit a 'dee' alarm call depending on the type of predator they are hunting.
The ability of crows to spontaneously vary the number of calls requires a combination of highly developed numerical skills and vocal control. 'Our results show that humans are not the only species capable of such a feat,' said Nieder. 'In principle, crows could also be capable of sophisticated communication.'
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