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(corvine tribal hobbies) Cumulative cultural evolution in crows? - Printable Version

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(corvine tribal hobbies) Cumulative cultural evolution in crows? - C C - Jun 30, 2018

https://www.sciencealert.com/crows-can-remember-tool-shapes-recreate-them-cumulative-cultural-evolution

EXCERPT: . . . Although New Caledonian crows don't appear to pay too much attention to what other crows are doing in the wild, specific tool designs have emerged in different areas. Observed over decades, this suggests that separate crow populations are developing their own modifications that persist and improve over generations. This could be an example of something called cumulative cultural evolution, which is rarely observed outside humans. But only if the crows are indeed memorising tool designs and recreating them.

To see if the clever birds are capable of this, a team of researchers led by psychologist Sarah Jelbert of the University of Cambridge designed an experiment for eight wild-caught New Caledonian crows. [...] "Our findings take the first step towards uncovering why New Caledonian crows show evidence of cumulative cultural evolution."

MORE: https://www.sciencealert.com/crows-can-remember-tool-shapes-recreate-them-cumulative-cultural-evolution