An Intelligent Crow Beats a Lab

Abstract

I read with interest the profile of Nicola Clayton and her work on cognition in birds (“Nicky and the jays,” News Focus, V. Morell, 23 Feb., p. [1074][1]). As an amusing aside to bird intelligence and food hiding, I contribute this photograph taken in 1955. My father owned a seafood market on the central Oregon coast and was very fond of crows as pets, which he valued highly for their intelligence. The attached picture represents a regular ritual of food hiding and searching between our labrador retriever and pet crow. ![Figure][2] Jocko the labrador and Jimmy the crow After the crow ate his fill, he would hide surplus food in the market's backyard, which afforded many niches under wood chips and other detritus. Our dog, Jocko, was always interested in an extral morsel and would scour the yard using his nose as his prime detector. The crow followed alongside him and when Jocko came too close to the concealed prize, Jimmy the crow would hop ahead of him, knock the wood chips aside, grab his food, and move it to another location. The crow relied on his memory of his stashed food to beat the dog to the prize nearly every time. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.315.5815.1074 [2]: pending:yes