According to a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports, habitually tool-using New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) are able to create tools by combining two or more otherwise non-functional elements, an ability so far observed only in humans and great apes.
Assemblage of different components into novel functional and maneuverable tools has, until now, only been observed in apes, and anthropologists regard early human compound tool manufacture as a significant step in brain evolution.
Children take several years before creating novel tools, probably because it requires anticipating properties of yet unseen objects.
Such anticipation, or planning, is usually interpreted as involving creative mental modeling and executive functions.
New Caledonia crows are of the same species as Betty, who became famous in 2002 as the first animal shown to be able to create a hooked tool by bending a pliable material.
Ornithologists had already been able to show how these remarkable birds were able to use and make tools in the wild and in captivity, but they had never previously been seen to combine more than one piece to make a tool.