It appears that calling someone a bird brain may not be such an insult after all
New research suggests birds are smarter than apes.
Scientists studied whether animals look at the physical world in the same way as humans and apes do.
In the study, the animals had to extract food from a horizontal tube by avoiding two holes cut into it where the food could fall out.
Researcher Professor Russell Gray says the animals were then given a similar puzzle – the only difference being it was a table with holes cut into it instead of a tube.
He says the crows not only learnt to do it very well, it appears they understood what was going on.
Gray says it is a common assumption humans are closely related to apes, and the finding that birds are actually smarter may come as a surprise.
