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janrinok [soylentnews.org] writes:

A report from ScienceDaily indicates that researchers from the University of Auckland have determined that crows understand water displacement at the level of a small child [sciencedaily.com], showing causal understanding of a 5- to 7-year-old. From the report:

Understanding causal relationships between actions is a key feature of human cognition. However, the extent to which non-human animals are capable of understanding causal relationships is not well understood. Scientists used the Aesop's fable riddle — in which subjects drop stones into water to raise the water level and obtain an out-of-reach reward — to assess New Caledonian crows' causal understanding of water displacement. These crows are known for their intelligence and innovation, as they are the only non-primate species able to make tools, such as prodding sticks and hooks. Six wild crows were tested after a brief training period for six experiments, during which the authors noted rapid learning (although not all the crows completed every experiment). The authors note that these tasks did not test insightful problem solving, but were directed at the birds' understanding of volume displacement.

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