Crows perform penalty shoot-outs to predict Argentina will win the World Cup
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Crows can solve complex puzzles and scientists think they are as smart as a seven-year-old child.
Now the clever corvids may be able to add football skills and psychic abilities to their list of accomplishments, as two trained crows have undertaken a penalty shootout to predict the winner of the World Cup.
Scientists at the Language, Culture and Cognition lab at the University of Auckland have been studying the intelligence of tool-making New Caledonian crows for over 10 years.
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Scientists have conducted a fun and whimsical experiment, letting crows take part in a penalty shoot-out to predict which team will win the World Cup (pictured above)
CORVID WORLD CUP RESULTS
The birds played penalty shootouts to predict who will win the real World Cup.
In the semi final between Germany and Brazil, Germany won.
In the match between The Netherlands and Argentina, Argentina won.
The crows predict that in the final between Argentina and Germany, the South American team will win to lift the famous trophy.
They have shown that crows can use tools to solve eight problems in a row and for fun, thought they would see if the birds could predict the winner of the World Cup.
Two of their best crows, named Ricalli and Crexa were invited to strut their stuff on a miniature football pitch with little goals and crow-sized footballs.
In order to make their predictions for which team will win the (real) World Cup, the crows had a penalty shootout by dropping a football down a tube to score a goal – or not.
Each time the crows took a shot they got a chunk of fillet steak as a treat.
In order to make their predictions for which team will win the World Cup, the crows had a penalty shootout by dropping a football down a tube to score a goal - or not. Here, a crow takes a shot for Germany
The creatures first predicted the results of tonight's semi-final between Brazil and Germany. According to the results of their penalty shoot-out, the hosts are set for a defeat.
They also predicted that Argentina will win tomorrow's clash with the Netherlands, paving the way for a final of Germany vs Argentina.
In the final show down, the crows predicted that the South American team will be the ones to lift the famous golden trophy.
'Who knows, given the form of Messi, they might be right. Are they brainy-birds or bird-brains? We will know soon enough,' said Dr Alex Taylor, a Lecturer in Evolutionary Psychology based at the university.
He has already shown that crows can solve one of the most complex tests of the animal mind ever to be constructed - and can do so in less than three minutes on camera - a world first.
The creatures first predicted the results of tonight's semi-final between Brazil and Germany. According to the results of their penalty shoot-out, the hosts are set for a defeat. Here, the winning goal is pictured
The crows also predicted that Argentina will win tomorrow's clash with the Netherlands, paving the way for a final of Germany vs Argentina. A crow scoring for Argentina is pictured
In the experiment, a crow named 007 performed a series of tasks without seeing the difficult course, make up of eight problems, beforehand.
The wild crow learned to use individual props during its three months of captivity but had to work out the order in which to use them to complete the challenge and get an inaccessible treat. The animal was later released.
007 completed the eight-stage puzzle in just two-and-a-half minutes. First, it pulled a string attached to the branch it perched on towards itself to reach a short stick dangling below.
The crow picked up the short stick in its mouth to complete stage one. 007 then immediately made its way to a narrow container containing a meaty treat and tried to use the stick to reach it – but it was too short.
In the final show down between Argentina and Germany, the crows predicted that the South American team will lift the famous golden trophy. Argentina's winning goal is pictured in the crow World Cup final
Dr Alex Taylor, a lecturer in evolutionary psychology at the University of Auckland, set up the football matches. He has already shown that crows can solve one of the most complex tests of the animal mind ever to be constructed (illustrated) - and can do so in less than three minutes on camera - a world first
THE CLEVERNESS OF CROWS
An experiment by the University of Cambridge has proved that members of the crow family, known as corvids, aren't just among the cleverest birds, they are smarter than most mammals and can perform tasks that three and four-year-old children have difficulty with.
Scientists said that, while having very different brain structures, both crows and primates use a combination of mental tools, including imagination and the anticipation of possible future events, to solve similar problems.
Other experiments involving the same family of birds found that Caledonian crows can use up to three tools in sequence to obtain food, which the University of Oxford's Behavioural Ecology Research Group said is the first demonstration of spontaneous sequential tool use in a species other than humans.
A study also found that rooks can use stones to raise the level of water in a vessel in order to bring a floating worm into reach.
Urban-living carrion crows have been witnessed learning to use road traffic for cracking nuts.
The bird kept hold of the stick and made its way to the first of three boxes, which each contained a stone unreachable without the stick behind wooden bars.
007 then used its stick to drag a stone from the first box and picked it up in its beak to complete stage two. But then it dropped the stone, seemingly temporarily stumped as what to do with it.
However, the persistent creature picked up the stick again and retrieved a stone from the second of the boxes and then seemingly has a brainwave to place it in a separate perspex container.
007 picked up the stone it has already retrieved and posted it into the clear container too, before retrieving the final stone from the final box.
When it posted the last of the stones into the perspex box, their weight pushed down a compartment, which allowed the crow to access a long stick and complete stage eight.
Armed with the long stick, the crow immediately used it to poke inside a narrow box treat containing a treat and dragged the morsel towards itself.
The clever bird was rewarded for its hard work and mental agility in completing the series of eight challenges.
The winning crow footballer is pictured with a miniature World Cup. Of their predictions for the real football matches, Dr Taylor said: 'Who knows, given the form of Messi, they might be right'
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