Do Nutcrackers Use Automobiles as Nutcrackers?

Crows Do Not Use Automobiles as Nutcrackers: Putting an Anecdote to the Test

hook-tools (Hunt 1996). In many cases only a single instance of the putative intelligent behavior has been observed (e.g. Montevecchi 1978, Andersson 1989). One behavior, the use of automobiles to crack open nuts, has been cited repeatedly as an example of corvid resourcefulness and adaptability (e.g. Beck 1980:127, Hunt 1996). There are only two original reports of this behavior in the literat...

The effect of proximity on landmark use in Clark's nutcrackers.

Clark's nutcrackers, Nucifraga columbiana, store thousands of pine seeds during the autumn and retrieve them throughout the winter. It has been shown that these birds are able to use visual cues to relocate hidden food in the laboratory. In this set of experiments, we trained three groups of Clark's nutcrackers to find a hidden food goal that was placed in the same spatial location relative to ...

Graded Mirror Self-Recognition by Clark’s Nutcrackers

The traditional 'mark test' has shown some large-brained species are capable of mirror self-recognition. During this test a mark is inconspicuously placed on an animal's body where it can only be seen with the aid of a mirror. If the animal increases the number of actions directed to the mark region when presented with a mirror, the animal is presumed to have recognized the mirror image as its ...

The Use of Landmarks by Clark's Nutcrackers: First Tests of a New Model

Use of a geometric rule or absolute vectors: landmark use by Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana).

Clark's nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana) were trained to search for a hidden goal located in the center of a four-landmark array. Upon completion of training, the nutcrackers were presented with tests that expanded the landmark array in the east-west direction, north-south direction and in both directions simultaneously. Although the birds learned to search accurately at the center of the lan...