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Animals & Wildlife

A crow had to solve a 9-puzzle escape room to get some chicken nuggets. Watch her ace it.

It's no secret that crows are smart, but this is incredible to witness.

Photo credit: Canva

Crows are so smart it's almost hard to believe.

When you think of some of the smartest animals on Earth, you may think of dolphins, chimps, elephants, or even the surprisingly intelligent octopus. But do you think of crows?

We've learned a lot about crow intelligence since scientists ramped up research on corvids in the 1990s and 2000s, and we're still discovering things crows can do that people didn't think were possible. Some reports estimate that crows have the approximate reasoning and memory skills of a 7-year-old human, which is pretty darn impressive-sounding. But to watch that intelligence on display is truly mind-blowing.

crow, intelligence, stacking rings, toy, learning, corvidsCrow GIFGiphy

Mark Rober, famous for his videos detailing elaborate experiments and breaking them down so that kids can understand them, found himself in a feud with a bird after his doorbell camera captured a neighborhood crow repeatedly stealing his DoorDash deliveries. In fact, the crow was so adept at scoping out his porch, recognizing when a delivery person was there, and grabbing his chicken nuggets as soon as the coast was clear that Rober felt like he was being targeted. After the crow knocked over his drink one day for no reason and then flew away cackling, Rober said he felt like the crow was bullying him.

Wanting to see exactly how smart these birds really are, Rober decided to dig in with his own experiment. He procured a rescued crow named Cheryl from a bird sanctuary and began setting up small tasks and puzzles to observe her behavior for a few months.

crows, crow behavior, tasks, intelligence, smart animals crows GIFGiphy

"It was really interesting to see how her curiosity would drive her to figure out clever ways to interact with objects in her environment, occasionally motivated by a strategically placed treat," said Rober. "It became clear she had a few favorite objects she loved to play with, [such as a] wooden ball, as she demonstrated a surprisingly deep understanding of cause and effect."

Rober then set up a 9-puzzle gauntlet for the crow to complete in order to get a reward—the coveted "nugs" that the neighborhood crow had been so keen on. But first, he had a group of kids complete the puzzles to demonstrate the difficulty level of them and what kind of reasoning or understanding they required.

From water displacement to facial recognition to cup stacking to tool creation, watching kids complete these puzzles and then watching a crow do it—sometimes better or faster than the children—is really something.

Cheryl's run through the escape room-style gauntlet begins at the 12:45 mark, but the whole thing is worth watching:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

The fact that the first puzzle required some understanding of physics made it a seemingly difficult place to start, but Cheryl figured out the first solution faster than the kids did. Several of the puzzles relied on activities Cheryl had previously engaged in in her enclosure, but that doesn't really diminish the impressiveness of what she figured out. Realizing that she needed a hook to get the little bucket out of the cylinder and then using her claws and beak to create one? Are you kidding? And the fact that see seemed to leave a dunked chicken nugget as a gift for Rober when all was said and done? Incredible.

People were blown away watching Cheryl solve the puzzles in sequence, and some commenters even shared experiences they've had with crows.

"My dad ended up getting trained by the neighborhood crows to do tricks for them... One day he noticed the crows throwing walnuts to the ground, clearly trying to break them but without much success, so he picked up the walnuts, stomped on them until they broke, and put them on the sidewalk for the crows. He did that a few more times on separate occasions, and the next thing he knew, the crows were waiting for him just to drop walnuts straight under his feet when he was passing by. They'd call him to get his attention if he didn't notice them. They trained him very well indeed... :)"

crow, corvid, crow intelligence, birds, mark roberCrows are some of the most intelligent birds on Earth.Photo credit: Canva

"You mentioned the crows throwing nuts in front of cars to open them. I have seen a fun variation on this. When I was a royal guard, and walking guarding outside a particular castle, the crows had noticed that we walked very particular routes, so particular that you can actually see the routes as the stones are more worn there. We had steel under our boots to make sound, and they would throw their nuts on my route, using me as they do cars to open their nuts."

"I got goosebumps this was such a cool video! I have been cultivating my girlfriend relationship with my neighborhood crows now for the last 3 years. They leave me presents, they come by all the time to say hello, and follow me on my walks. One of my neighbors lovingly called me birdman yesterday, and I couldn't help but smile. Thank you for this, Mr. Rober."

"You brought up crows doing things for fun. I used to live over in West Hollywood and would head up Runyan Canyon for exercise. The crows used to love diving down the side of the canyon and then doing barrel rolls once they hit top speed. They are some of the most imaginative creatures for their size and intelligence."

Seriously, crows are incredible. Just don't get on their bad side, apparently. They'll recognize you and torment you just for the fun of it.

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Science

An old male bald eagle who adopted a rock as an egg has just been given a real foster baby

People are totally invested in Murphy becoming a real dad after he spent weeks nurturing his "RockBaby."

World Bird Sanctuary/Facebook

Murphy meets a rescued eaglet—his new foster baby.

On March 8, 2023, a keeper at World Bird Sanctuary in St. Louis County, Missouri, noticed something odd. A male bald eagle named Murphy was guarding what appeared to be a large depression in the ground. “The spot was sparsely but carefully decorated with leaves and branches, and featured a simple rock right in the center,” the nature preserve shared on its Facebook page.

Murphy began sitting on the rock, nudging it and becoming fiercely protective of it, as it if were an egg. People visiting the sanctuary would inquire about the bald eagle just sitting there, wondering if he was okay. The keepers finally put up a sign that read:

“If you see an eagle lying down in the back left corner under a perch, that’s Murphy! Murphy is not hurt, sick, or otherwise in distress. He has built a nest on the ground, and is very carefully incubating a rock! We wish him the best of luck!”

In case you’re wondering if this is unusual behavior for a 31-year-old male bald eagle, the answer is "not really, but…." Male bald eagles do share equally in nesting and baby-raising, so the paternal instinct part is normal. Murphy's channeling of that instinct onto a rock…maybe not so much. And at 31, he's more like a great-granddad than dad, as bald eagles usually live 20 to 30 years in the wild (though they do live longer in captivity).

Murphy takes fatherhood seriously, though. Soon he began screaming and charging at the four other eagles in the aviary if they came anywhere near RockBaby. (That's the official name the keepers gave Murphy’s…well, rock baby.) Naturally, the screaming and charging caused a fair amount of stress for all involved, so Murphy and RockBaby were moved to their own enclosure for everyone's protection.

People who saw this unfold started suggesting sanctuary staff replace Murphy’s rock with a real egg or get him a mate, but 1) Eagle eggs aren’t just lying around waiting to be given to wanna-be dads, 2) hatching a different kind of bird's egg would be potentially dangerous for it, and 3) Murphy had two females right there in the aviary, and none of them were interested in each other. Alas, the heart cannot be forced.

However, a different opportunity presented itself in late March when an aerie with two chicks in it was blown down by high winds. One chick didn’t survive the fall, but the other was brought to World Bird Sanctuary’s Wildlife Hospital.

A bit bruised, but otherwise healthy, the chick was given a good prognosis. Staff began feeding it while wearing a camouflage suit and holding an eagle stuffy to prevent the eaglet from imprinting on humans. What the baby really needed was a foster parent—an adult eagle who would feed and care for it.

“Murphy’s dad instincts were already in high gear,” the sanctuary wrote on April 11, “but at 31 years old, he had never raised a chick before. It’s definitely a gamble, but also the chick’s best chance.”

Introducing an eaglet to an adult eagle isn’t as simple as dropping it in the enclosure. First, the eaglet is put into what the sanctuary refers to as a “baby jail," which is a heated, comfy cage made of wood and wire that protects the eaglet but still allows some interaction between the birds so they can get used to one another. Once the desired bonding behavior is observed, then they try out some direct one-on-one interaction without the cage.

On April 12, World Bird Sanctuary announced, "IT'S HAPPENING!!!!"

The eaglet (referred to as Bald Eaglet 23-126—they don't name foster babies at the sanctuary for superstitious reasons) was released from baby jail, and after an hour or so Murphy approached it with curiosity. Was he wondering if his RockBaby had hatched? Maybe. Would he be the nurturing dad everyone hoped he would be? It appears so.

As the sanctuary shared:

"This morning, Murphy got his chance to be a full parent as 23-126 left the nest to go be closer to Murphy. The food is being dropped through a blind drop tube into the nest and baby appears unable to be able to get over the lip to get back into the nest to get the chopped food. When we checked back, we found that baby was still out of the nest and all the chopped food was still in the nest. However, Murphy’s whole fish had been removed from the nest and baby had a full crop. 23-126 is not yet old enough to tear food which means MURPHY FED THE BABY!!!!"

The comments on the update, of course, are pure gold as people have become fully invested in this story:

"I can’t believe I’m crying over eagles!"

"Murphy’s going to be giving a TedTalk: Manifest The Eaglet You Need In Your Life."

"So happy for Murphy & eaglet Dwayne (the rock Johnson)."

"'Rock, I am your Father.'"

"Omg I’m crying! Murphy never gave up on his rock and now has a baby of his very own❤️The wonders of nature never cease. Ty, WBS, for making this possible. These two are saving each other❤️🦅❤️🦅🪨🐣."

Many people have lamented that there is not a live cam so we can all watch this pair as their relationship develops, but staff reminded everyone that the sanctuary is out in the middle of the woods and they don't have a strong enough signal for a live stream.

But WBS staff has been posting updates on social media and will share the story as it continues to unfold. Follow World Bird Sanctuary on Facebook here. And if you feel compelled to donate to help feed little Dwayne or 23-126 or whatever you'd like to call Murphy's new baby—who apparently eats a ridiculous amount—you can donate here or check out their Amazon baby registry (yes, seriously!) here.

Congratulations, Papa Murphy!


This article originally appeared two years ago.

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Science

Wildlife rehab center uses clever costume to teach orphaned crane how to drink from a pond

Things we might assume are instinctual sometimes have to be taught.

Photos courtesy of FreeMe Wildlife/Facebook

FreeMe Wildlife worker Siya mimics an adult wattled crane to train a youngster.

When a baby animal is abandoned or orphaned in the wild, chances are good it's not going to survive without some kind of outside assistance. That's where wildlife rescues and rehabilitation centers come in to provide the safety and care a wee one needs to no only survive but learn to thrive.

That learning doesn't always come naturally, though. We might assume that animal instincts are enough for wildlife to know how to do basic survival tasks, but often they're not. Babies learn from their mothers how to eat and drink and other things they need to know how to do stay alive, and when the mom isn't there, humans have to fill in.

However, humans filling the mom role is problematic in its own right. Baby wildlife can imprint on human caregivers, seeing them as their mothers, which can interfere with their instincts and be dangerous for the animal. Ideally, helpful humans find ways to demonstrate necessary behaviors without creating too much of an attachment so that the animal can eventually thrive in the wild or at least with its own kind.

That's the idea behind a clever costume a worker at FreeMe Wildlife Midlands Centre in South Africa wore to teach a wattled crane chick how to drink from a pond. Watch:

The critically endangered crane chick was 2 1/2 months old and had been found with a broken leg. The costume appears to mimic an adult crane as the worker uses a puppet head and neck on its arm to "drink" from the pond when the chick is looking.

FreeMe shared that the puppet, Waldo, is "an all important tool in the rehabilitation, hand raising, and keeping wild of Wattled Crane chicks." Two workers at the center have mastered the art of mimicking an adult wattled crane's behavior. "This is a vital part of the rehabilitation process. If one does not intimately understand the physiology, the ethology, and the psychology of one's subject, one cannot successfully rehabilitate it..." FreeMe shared.

People might wonder why they don't just put another bird in the enclosure to teach it, but introducing animals to one another isn't always that simple, especially in captivity. Lots of people expressed their desire to do this job and some also shared other experiences with teaching birds how to be birds.

"Amazing! When I've rescued baby pigeons often they won't peck seeds unless there are other birds around, soo sometimes I'll put on a YouTube video of birds eating and then they get it."

"i hatch chickens and they do this too!! they don't come out of the egg knowing how to eat and drink, but they don't need to eat for the first 24-36 hours (they stay in the incubator to dry out). the first bunch will be able to teach the others, but those first hatched need to be taught. you do that by 'pecking' the food and water with your finger, they typically catch on in seconds and then don't need to be taught again."

Walking Chicken GIFGiphy

"This is exactly how the San Diego Zoo (amongst others) takes care of baby California condors so they don't imprint. Since they were so critically endangered and almost extinct in the wild, they used puppets to teach them how to be birds so they could be released and rebound their populations. And they were incredibly successful!"

As we saw recently with a man incubating an abandoned duck egg and raising the duckling for rehab, it's important for vulnerable wildlife to have humans who understand how to help them without making them dependent. The goal of a wildlife rescue should be to help an animal thrive in its natural habitat if at all possible, and if not, to at least make sure it knows how do the things others in its species can do. There are rare exceptions, of course, when a rescue animal is disabled or has a history that makes it human dependent, but as the FreeMe website states, the purpose a rehabilitation center is "to rehabilitate these animals so that they may be released back into the wild in areas free from poaching and with reduced human activity."

And sometimes it takes creative tools like a silly-looking costume to achieve that goal.

wildlife rescue
Pets

He rescued a baby parrot with birth defects. His reaction to its first steps is priceless.

This is what pure joy looks like.

Photo by Mariano Mollo on Unsplash

A sweet rescue and a lot of love.

Saving the life of one small animal among the billions upon billions of living things on Earth may not seem significant in the big picture, but when that one's life is in your hands, it means the world.

In 2022, Yassin Elmahgoub was a medical student from Egypt who shared the journey of a tiny baby parrot he rescued. The parrot, who he named Mumble, was born with birth defects and wasn't able to stand or walk. With the help of a parrot behavior consultant, Elmahgoub hand-fed Mumble, nursed him to good health, and helped him develop mobility.

In a TikTok video that's been viewed more than 8 million times, Elmahgoub shared Mumble's journey from his earliest days until he was finally able to walk on his own.

"I bottle fed him and started his treatment," Elmahgoub wrote. "It took days and hours of support and physiotherapy but our team could do it."

And they did. But even better than seeing Mumble take his first steps is seeing Elmahgoub's reaction to it. Watch:

@yassinelmahgoub

This is the best thing that happened to me in a while. All it takes is one person to save a life. @Sara Haytham couldn’t do it without u #fyp #hope #rescue #bird #positivity #medicine #medicalstudent #arabs #egypt #cairo #viral

The persistence and gentle patience of nursing Mumble paid off, and Elmahgoub's celebration is joy personified. People absolutely loved it.

"I love animals..but the pure joy on that guy's face is simply beautiful," wrote one commenter.

"This is one of the best and heartwarming things I’ve seen in a while, thank you so much for this," wrote another.

"Oh I was not prepared for those tears!" wrote another "What joy this sweet bird has brought him, SO sweet!"

Elmahgoub has shared updates on Mumble's progress since sharing the viral video. Check out this follow-up video culminating with Mumble at Day 60 in all of his beautiful blue glory.

@yassinelmahgoub

Growth takes time. For those asking about how mumble is doing now here you go. #fyp #foryou #positive #positivity #rescue #bird #rescuebird #medicine #medicalstudent #medical #arabs #egypt #cairo #viral

Mumble has not only learned to stand and walk, but he has learned to fly as well. Just amazing.

@yassinelmahgoub

And it was all yellow #fyp #foryou #postive #postivity #postiveenergy #rescue #rescuebird #medicine #medicalstudent #medical #arabs #egypt #cairo #viral

Congrats to Mumble and kudos to Yassin Elmahgoub for caring so much and sharing this happy journey to mobility with us. Imagine what a beautiful world we could create if we all took such good care of living things, including one another.

You can follow Elmahgoub and Mumble's ongoing story on TikTok and Instagram. And for a sweet update, congratulations are in order! Elmahgoub recently finished school and is now the first doctor in his family!

This article originally appeared three years ago.

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