Why the raven is the smartest bird in the world

The saying "Wise as a raven" is familiar to everyone. But why is this gloomy bird considered the most intelligent? Probably due to the fact that Edgar Alan Poe once made the crow the protagonist of his famous poem. Or maybe because the crows are able to calculate options, solve puzzles, make plans for the future, deceive for their own benefit and communicate, including with other species?

Marshmallow for a raven

About 40 years ago in the UK they conducted the famous "marshmallow experiment." Its essence was that a group of 600 four-year-olds was given marshmallows and offered to eat it immediately, or wait a bit and get two marshmallows. As a result, some of the children listened to the options, already chewing marshmallows with pleasure. It turned out that more restrained and reasonable kids in the future showed better results at school.

What does the raven have to do with it? Until now, it was known that ravens hide food "on a rainy day," although this still does not say anything about their intelligence. For example, squirrels also make caches with nuts in the ground, but in the end they forget where 75% of them are located and thus plant millions of new trees.

But black wise birds are not like that. During the experiment, it turned out that the raven can refuse a tasty treat if he knows that in the future he will receive even more for this. When experimental birds were offered food right now or an instrument with which they could open a box with a “prize,” they would choose an instrument, even if the box was not there. The crows remembered that the box always appears 15 minutes after the instrument, and decided to tolerate in order to win.

Thieves and liars

But that is not all. During another experiment, the crow was offered to drink water from a narrow vessel into which his head did not crawl. Then the bird showed excellent knowledge of the law of Archimedes: she began to throw heavy objects into the vessel, which raised the water level, until finally the raven could not get drunk.

Despite the intellect, the crows are not very burdened with moral dilemmas and, on occasion, are ready to steal food from a fellow. To do this, they monitor where other birds hide their food, and then rob the hiding places. But legitimate food owners also often trick themselves and only pretend to hide supplies, misleading thieves.