Agent 007 crow cracks his meaty problem

Auckland University lecturer Dr Alex Taylor used a Caledonian crow in problem-solving tests.

They call him 007 because he gets the job done - and for this feathered little thinker, doing so was quite the task.

An Auckland University researcher put the New Caledonian crow through a complex eight-stage puzzle and, true to his James Bond namesake, watched him solve it in less than three minutes.

Dr Alex Taylor's experiment, which has featured on the BBC programme Inside the Animal Mind - The Problem Solvers, shows why the birds are considered first-class problem solvers.

The Marsden Fund-supported study, which saw 007 complete one of the most challenging courses ever created for an animal mind, was designed to investigate the effect tools have on the evolution of intelligence.

Over three months in captivity, the crafty crow had been trained to use individual props including rocks and sticks.

Later, 007 was faced with a difficult course requiring it to use all of the props in a specific order to reach a piece of meat placed out of reach inside a narrow transparent container.

The bird first used his beak to haul up a short stick hanging from a branch it was perched on, but then found it too short to reach the meat.

But it then quickly figured out the stick's purpose - to reach three small stones behind bars in separate boxes.

The bird dropped the stick to grasp the first stone, but then picked up the stone and found itself stumped.

It clutched the stick again, using it to retrieve the next stone, and then realised how to crack the course.

007 picked up the two stones and dropped them through a chute into another perspex container, before retrieving the final stone and dropping it in with the others.

The combined weight of the stones pushed open a compartment within the box, giving 007 access to a longer stick, which it used to reach the meat and complete the course.

"It was a fantastic performance by 007, I was really happy he was able to put all the pieces together," said Dr Taylor, a research fellow with the University of Cambridge's Department of Experimental Psychology.

It followed previous impressive experiments with the savvy birds, one demonstrating that crows intuitively knew a stick being poked out of a plastic sheet must be caused by a person hiding behind it.

Such reasoning was previously considered unique to humans.

"In terms of birds, they are basically one of the smartest, if not the smartest," he said.

"The bigger perspective of this particular study was trying to understand the effect that tools have on the evolution intelligence."

The tests could ultimately help establish a link between tool use and intelligence.

• Watch 007 cracking the course here.