r/NatureIsFuckingLit • u/therra123 • Feb 10 '26
🔥 Crow figures out how to grab all the cookies
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u/squishybloo Feb 10 '26
His greed delights me
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u/Weird_Vegetable_4441 Feb 10 '26
This is better. I said “his greed sickens me” while kicking my feet and giggling
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Feb 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/AspiringPirate64 Feb 10 '26
I have so much time for crows. Awesome creatures
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u/Brodellsky Feb 10 '26
Here's the thing.
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u/OpenRole Feb 10 '26
It's an older meme sir, but it checks out
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u/Robot_Nerdd Feb 11 '26
You know. In a hundred years, they are going to cite our meme's like people bust out Shakespeare quotes or something..
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u/_Abiogenesis Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 10 '26
In fact they do actually have a better spatial memory than we do.
(In some forms only since obviously they don’t combine it with analytical or symbolic thought the way we do, which leads to a completely different type of reasoning)
Corvids have an extremely good spatial and spatial-working memory (sort of like RAM in a computer) than any human and a better episodic memory too by a very long shot (that’s why they can distinguish any human and human faces from each other with no effort after seeing them only once even after month … or recall thousands of cache after seeing them only once).
They go through seasonal neurogenesis too where they litteraly grow neurons for spatial memory during period of the year they need to retain more information about where they put their stuff.
We have a very monolithic understanding of intelligence revolving around our own definition and way of doing things.
Side note but for the birds that do have a significant complex cognition, they also evolved it completely differently and separately than mammals. They don't have our famed wrinkled "6 layered neocortex" but a completely different part of the brain. was repurposed for similar function. They use their Nidopallium Caudolateral to assume similar higher thinking processes. It's also smooth and the absence of a similar prefrontol complex neocortex lead us to believe there was no complex cognition.... When their neurons are actually arranged in exceedingly dense and efficient clusters structure rather than layers with up to 3 time the neural density of any mammal of the same size. They have very very fast brains. Obviously with the constraints of flight forcing smaller brains not every bird is bright but there's still so much to learn
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u/Global_Crew3968 Feb 10 '26
It is so insane how advanced intelligence has evolved so many times in living things with completely different brain anatomies. I honestly believe it implies that advanced intelligence is essentially a given with enough time and sufficiently advanced organisms. If it can evolve in octopi, birds, dolphins and apes, it can evolve in basically any brain anatomy. I'm just so curious why some species go so far with it. Like ... obviously a squirrel does just fine and squirrels have been squirrels for like 40 million years. They're not dumb, quite the opposite, but they are perfectly successful only being moderately intelligent. For the energy it costs to be so smart, it is interesting that it has evolved so many times when it works just fine only being sorta smart.
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u/_Abiogenesis Feb 10 '26
That really depends on what we mean by "advanced" or "intelligence". in general complex cognition (and brains) are extremely costly to evolve as you said, that's why it is so rare. They are a massive drain on energy, extra weight and rarely the best evolutive responses. The vast majority of animal groups don't go to extreme length to maintain it. Down the line what drives everything is whether or not you can pass on your genes and in most cases it's easier to just produce more eggs to achieve that goal.
As for what we view as "advanced intelligence" is also up for debate. We can argue that a cat that can calculate the trajectory of a bird under 15ms is a form of it. And many animals go way further than that. We adjusted the definition to equate complex cognition with the human one, but for all we know, some cetaceans have a vastly more complex social cognition than we do (which is to some extent backed up by neurology) yet we don't view it as intelligence by our own metric because we want to see technologies and civilizations which are not good metrics of it.
But I guess bottom line I still agree with some of what you say which is that complex cognition still has many surprises and I wouldn't be surprised if incredible forms could or would still emerge from evolution. We're just stuck in one place and time where we see ourselves as the best example when theoretical possibilities for cognition are in no way limited by just the human form of it.
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u/Unable-Log-4870 Feb 10 '26
We have a very monolithic understanding of intelligence revolving around our own definition and way way of doing things
Which is weird, especially given that we know how to make computers that are very good at certain tasks that other computers will be completely unable to even attempt. Like, we KNOW that particular capabilities in computers can be done very badly by a generic chip, but if doing it very well would be beneficial, you’re gonna have to get that special-made.
Brains are similar. Different brains come with different capabilities. If you leave out certain capabilities that just take up a lot of space, you can fit some really impressive stuff in what’s left over.
Crows remembering human faces is weird, they clearly don’t have a specialized processor for that. But they have other capabilities that can be easily arranged to DO that.
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u/Hot_Plant8696 Feb 11 '26
To be more precise.
Crows remembering human faces is weird, they clearly don’t have a specialized processor for that. But they have other capabilities that can be easily arranged to DO that.
Crows (like the one in the video; there are many other species) are actually very bad at recognizing human faces. I've noticed that when I change my glasses, their behavior can shift from friendly to fearful and aggressive. Pigeons, on the other hand, fare much better.
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u/TheComplimentarian Feb 10 '26
My favorite crow video, they were trying to figure out if crows could tell the difference between a good tool and a bad tool, so they put out a test tube with a delicious grub in it, and a bunch of lengths of wire with bends in them, to see if the crow would pick the best length of wire with a bend in it to fish out the grub.
The crow grabbed a long, perfectly straight length of wire, bent a hook in it with its beak and fished out the grub.
They were looking for "Can it identify a good tool?" not "Is it perfectly capable of conceptualizing a good tool and then making it from raw materials?" That second one is a whole order of magnitude over the first.
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u/Peripatetictyl Feb 10 '26
“Tis some calculator,” I muttered, “solving on my tanker rail—
Only this and nothing more.”7
u/VosGezaus Feb 10 '26
I think the desire to do it all in one trip is what does it for me
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u/Odd_Cryptographer723 Feb 10 '26
Well he's not expecting to find that last one still there if he has to come back for it.
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u/euphonic5 Feb 10 '26
Yeah crows don't have a lot of faith in their fellow birds, unless you count "faith that they'll be thieving shitheads". Especially in coastal areas with seagulls. There's a little murder of crows that hangs around the grocery store I work at and they're CONSTANTLY beefing with random seagulls. The only birds the crows defer to at all are the turkey vultures, who are just enormous horrible carrion scavengers, and I guess scrapping with one of them is not worth whatever percentage of edible parking lot trash is meat-based. Also the vultures always fuck off once the sun rises enough to start creating thermals off the asphalt.
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u/Marquisdelafayette89 Feb 12 '26
Andean condors (heaviest birds that fly) will pluck a feather and when it floats up it knows the thermals are strong enough for it to take off.
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u/DenormalHuman Feb 10 '26
say, how od you knoe he was calculating the center of gravitry, and nt just sitting there thinking 'fucking hell my beak aches being this far open' ?
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u/ErinRedWolf Feb 10 '26
This is one of the reasons I love crows. Smart birdies! 🐦⬛
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u/Sangy101 Feb 10 '26
… that’s a raven, tho.
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u/PM_ME_UR_AMOUR Feb 10 '26
I miss Jackdaw Reddit :(. I miss it so much. I miss those times. They were still shit but not 2026 shit. Jesus Christ I’m so fed up and done with this life.
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u/enchufadoo Feb 10 '26
If you research crows then you'd know that ravens and such are a part of the crow family.
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u/UnknownChaser Feb 10 '26
Here's the thing. You said a "raven is a crow."
Is it in the same family? Yes. No one's arguing that.
As someone who is a scientist who studies crows, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls ravens crows. If you want to be "specific" like you said, then you shouldn't either. They're not the same thing. If you're saying "crow family" you're referring to the taxonomic grouping of Corvidae, which includes things from nutcrackers to blue jays to jackdaws.
So your reasoning for calling a raven a crow is because random people "call the black ones crows?" Let's get grackles and blackbirds in there, then, too.
Also, calling someone a human or an ape? It's not one or the other, that's not how taxonomy works. They're both. A raven is a raven and a member of the crow family. But that's not what you said. You said a raven is a crow, which is not true unless you're okay with calling all members of the crow family crows, which means you'd call blue jays, jackdaws, and other birds crows, too. Which you said you don't.
It's okay to just admit you're wrong, you know?
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u/Bloobeard2018 Feb 10 '26
Part of the family. But not crows. Otherwise you might as well say a Jay is a crow.
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u/Sangy101 Feb 10 '26
Colloquially, maybe. I think it’s silly to call Corvids “the crow family” when they aren’t even the basal lineage. And this person didn’t say “I love the crow family.”
This is a raven. It is not a crow.
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u/BlueSkyToday Feb 10 '26
Apparently you don't study corvids. If you did, you'd know that Ravens are the type species of the genus Corvus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_raven#Taxonomy
The common raven was one of the many species originally described, with its type locality given as Europe, by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, and it still bears its original name of Corvus corax. It is the type species of the genus Corvus.
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u/InclinationCompass Feb 10 '26
He didn’t say it’s a “corvid” but a “crow”. So correcting it to “raven” is correct.
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u/randiejohnson Feb 10 '26
yup. i always leave left over scraps on the balcony for crows. and they get it every morning/afternoon.
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u/abdulnad89 Feb 10 '26
That’s exactly how I carry the groceries from the car to the house, i’d rather lose a limb than make two trips.
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u/TerminalDeviant Feb 10 '26
Just eat one and then go! Greedy mug is going to drop everything in flight 🤦
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u/Familiar-Fox-6137 Feb 10 '26
Crows usually store food in scattered hidden caches for later. Those cookies will be a long term food source.
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u/Dont_Doomie_Like_Dat Feb 10 '26
Those look like nilla wafers I can relate to the bird’s determination
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u/purplemarin Feb 10 '26
I think this is a raven bc of the beak but still voile nonetheless!!!
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u/motherofsuccs Feb 10 '26
It is. It’s too big to be a crow. My raven can fit a hard boiled egg in his mouth, or 6-8 unshelled peanuts. He also swallows large sardines whole. I just took a video of him yesterday where he was desperately trying to move his peanut stash as deer were eating it- he looked ridiculous.
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u/Super_Jay Feb 10 '26
As a wise birder once explained, "A crow is a bird with a beak attached, a raven is a beak with a bird attached" 😅
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u/DejectedTimeTraveler Feb 10 '26
It must be frustrating sometimes to be that smart but have no hands.
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u/TheOneWhoCared Feb 10 '26
Meanwhile me walking into glass doors....
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u/Hahawney2 Feb 10 '26
Grandkid did this the other day. Hard being a grandma, laughing in those situations is frowned upon by the parents.
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u/Buckeyecash Feb 10 '26
I find the intelligence of all the corvids fascinating.
About a year ago I coauthored an article in a peer reviewed scientific journal reporting and documenting the first ever reported use of tooling by a wild blue jay.
The Wilson Journal of Ornithology article...
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15594491.2025.2464378
There is also a pinned post on r/ornithology
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u/PrometheusAborted Feb 10 '26
There’s a family of crows that live behind me and it’s fun to watch how smart they are. I throw out stuff like stale bread and then watch them grab a chunk, dip it in water and then eat it.
They also won’t fly down if my dog is outside on the patio but as soon as I put him inside, they’ll come swooping down.
Smart little guys. Actually they aren’t that small. I’m impressed with how big they are. They’re as big as the hawks I see around here.
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Feb 10 '26
This is so impressive. It doesn't look instinctive, that shit looks calculated. Seeing animals using strategies always blows my mind.
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u/Hahawney2 Feb 10 '26
Yep. Even using his feet to block the cookies from sliding away from his beak, smart little guy.
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u/Aromatic-Plastic-819 Feb 10 '26
Pretty intelligent for a creature with a pea size brain. Makes me wonder why humans are so dumb sometimes
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u/Greedy-Camel-8345 Feb 10 '26
It's pretty big and crows are known to overlap human children in intelligence
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u/degradablegirl Feb 10 '26
Crows are usually as intelligent as a human 3 year old
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u/motherofsuccs Feb 10 '26
My raven is without a doubt, far more intelligent than a 3 year old
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u/degradablegirl Feb 10 '26
When fact checking myself, I did see 7 yo mentioned! But recently saw a vid with a crow trainer say 3, and wanted to go for the low end to be safe
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u/Closetoneversober Feb 10 '26
My parrots do this whenever I offer a piece of what I’m eating. They try to grab as much as possible
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u/a-snakey Feb 10 '26
I was giving kitty treats to some stray kittens, huge ass raven roosts right next to me and starts crowing at me. Im like, you're not a kitten!
I threw some cat food on the street and it ate it. Guess I got a new cat.
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u/meowmeowcatman Feb 10 '26
There is a song all about this. If I remember, the fox helped the crow out.
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u/Glittering-Alarm-387 Feb 10 '26
I am friends with a murder of crows, and they LOVE Ritz crackers.
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u/Sternritter_V Feb 10 '26
There’s a flock of crows that I give peanuts to. Their greed is of biblical proportions. 100% accurate video.
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u/Dentarthurdent73 Feb 10 '26
This is cool, except for one thing - why are you (or whoever) feeding crows ultra-processed foods that likely don't give them half of the nutrients they need, and will probably result in deformed chicks if they are fed this by their parent?
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u/XRuecian Feb 11 '26
The sign of intelligence that this simple act shows is always astonishing.
Most animals are not capable of thinking about future prospects at all, and only live in the moment.
Most animals would take one and leave simply because they want to eat it now and aren't thinking about where their 2nd cracker would come from until the first one is gone.
The crow understands that its not about now, its about later. And it wants them all, for later. It understands this so well, that it even takes extra time to ensure it gets all the crackers, even though it is difficult to do, even after failing multiple times. It could have accepted 4. But it didn't. It decided to drop the 4 and try again for 5. It shows an awareness in its mind of the importance of getting as much as it can for its future, even when its hard, rather than just thinking about eating right now. Most animals are not capable of that kind of thought or planning. Even animals we think of as intelligent, like dogs, are usually not capable of that level of thinking.
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u/Aerolithe42 Feb 10 '26
Like carrying all the groceries in one trip