kuchnie-świata: Corvus

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

Corvus is a widely distributed genus of passerine birds ranging from medium-sized to large-sized in the family Corvidae. It includes species commonly known as crows, ravens, and rooks. The species commonly encountered in Europe are the carrion crow, hooded crow, common raven, and rook; those discovered later were named "crow" or "raven" chiefly on the basis of their size, crows generally being smaller. The genus name is Latin for "raven". The 46 or so members of this genus occur on all continents except South America, Antarctica and several islands. The genus Corvus makes up a third of the species in the family Corvidae. The members appear to have evolved in Asia from the corvid stock, whic…

Evidence: 45 • authority: 92

Preliminary observations of tool-processing behaviour in Hawaiian crows <i>Corvus hawaiiensis</i>.. Very few animal species habitually make and use foraging tools. We recently discovered that the Hawaiian crow is a highly skilled, natural tool user. Most captive adults in our experiment spontaneously used sticks to access out-of-reach food from a range of extraction tasks, exhibiting a surprising degree of dexterity. Moreover, many birds modified tools before or during deployment, and some even manufactured tools from raw materials. In this invited addendum article, we describe and discuss these observations in more detail. Our preliminary data, and comparisons with the better-studied New C…

Evidence: 43 • authority: 88

Software project demonstrations as not only an assessment tool but also a learning tool. Software project demonstrations are commonly used as an effective assessment tool in software courses. We found that in addition to helping instructors find out the status of student projects in a short period of time, project demonstrations motivate students and challenge them to synthesize, organize, prioritize, and articulate different aspects of their projects, all of which are important skills of professional software developers. Our experiment shows that project demonstrations are an effective learning tool as well. In this paper, we describe different types of project demonstrations in our experi…

Evidence: 43 • authority: 92

Invasive Alien Species of European Union Concern: A Systematic Review of High-Priority Pathogens in 22 Species in a One Health Framework.. Invasive alien species (IAS) not only threaten biodiversity and ecosystems but also play a significant role in the spread of infectious diseases; however, the epidemiological role of many IAS remains poorly understood. This study presents the first systematic review of major pathogens reported in 22 IAS of concern to the European Community. Given the breadth of available data, we relied on a literature search including studies reporting natural infections in target IAS, excluding experimental infections and non-target species. A total of 541 publications…

Evidence: 36 • authority: 72

Animal culture can be defined as the ability of non-human animals to learn and transmit behaviors through processes of social or cultural learning. Culture is increasingly seen as a process, involving the social transmittance of behavior among peers and between generations. It can involve the transmission of novel behaviors or regional variations that are independent of genetic or ecological factors. The existence of culture in non-humans has been a contentious subject, sometimes forcing researchers to rethink "what it is to be human". The notion of culture in other animals dates back to Aristotle in classical antiquity, and more recently to Charles Darwin, but the association of other anim…

Evidence: 36 • authority: 92

The flexible, the stereotyped and the in-between: putting together the combinatory tool use origins hypothesis.. Tool use research has long made the distinction between tool using that is considered learned and flexible, and that which appears to be instinctive and stereotyped. However, animals with an inherited tool use specialisation can exhibit flexibility, while tool use that is spontaneously innovated can be limited in its expression and facilitated by predispositions for ecological specialisations. Furthermore, recent evidence does not support the proposed division of flexible tool use along primate-bird taxonomic lines. Instead, we hypothesise that tool use is a more complementary ph…

Evidence: 36 • authority: 72

A wide range of non-human animals, including mammals, birds, fish, cephalopods and insects, use tools in order to achieve a goal, such as acquiring food and water, grooming, combat, defence, communication, recreation, or construction. Some tool use requires a sophisticated level of cognition. There is considerable discussion about the definition of what constitutes a tool and therefore which behaviours can be considered to be tool use. The fashioning of tools is much rarer than the use of existing objects as tools, and is only attested from mammals and birds. Primates are well known for using tools for hunting or gathering food and water, cover for rain, and self-defence. Chimpanzees have o…

Evidence: 36 • authority: 72

Corvidae is a cosmopolitan family of oscine passerine birds that contains the crows, ravens, rooks, magpies, jackdaws, jays, treepies, choughs, and nutcrackers. In colloquial terms, the crow family is made up of corvids; currently 135 species are included. The genus Corvus containing 47 species makes up over a third of the entire family. The common raven is the largest passerine bird. Corvids display remarkable intelligence for animals of their size, and are among the most intelligent birds thus far studied. Specifically, members of the family have demonstrated self-awareness in mirror tests (Eurasian magpies) and tool-making ability (e.g. crows and rooks), skills which until recently were…

Evidence: 29 • authority: 72

The difficulty of defining or measuring intelligence in non-human animals makes the question of avian intelligence resistant to scientific study. In general, birds have relatively large brains compared to their head size. Furthermore, bird brains have two to four times the neuron packing density of mammal brains, for higher overall efficiency. The visual and auditory senses are well developed in most species, though the tactile and olfactory senses are well realised only in a few groups. Birds communicate using visual signals as well as through the use of calls and song. The testing of intelligence in birds is therefore usually based on studying responses to sensory stimuli. Corvids (includ…

Evidence: 21 • authority: 72

The white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), sometimes known as the "sea eagle", is a large bird of prey, widely distributed across temperate Eurasia. Like other eagles, it is a member of the family Accipitridae (or accipitrids) which also includes other diurnal raptors such as hawks, kites, and harriers. One of up to eleven members in the genus Haliaeetus, which are commonly called sea eagles, it is also referred to as the white-tailed sea-eagle. Sometimes, it is known as the ern or erne (depending on spelling by sources), gray sea eagle and Eurasian sea eagle. While found across a wide range, breeding from as far west as Greenland and Iceland across to as far east as Hokkaido, Japan, th…

Evidence: 21 • authority: 80

Tool Use by the New Caledonian Crow <i>Corvus moneduloides</i> to Obtain Cerambycidae from Dead Wood

Evidence: — • authority: 72

A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task, and proto-typically refers to solid hand-operated non-biological objects with a single broad purpose that lack multiple functions, unlike machines or computers. Although human beings are proportionally most active in using and making tools in the animal kingdom, as use of stone tools dates back hundreds of millennia, and also in using tools to make other tools, many animals have demonstrated tool use in both instances. Early human tools, made of such materials as stone, bone, and wood, were used for the preparation of food, hunting, the man…