Dinner Table Talk – Aesop’s Fable True?

Ever want to wow your dinner companions with some intriguing story none of them have heard? Here’s any interesting one, brought to light by researchers at the University of Cambridge and the University of London.

Aesop’s fable may have some truth to it

“The crow and the pitcher” was written thousands of years ago, and new research shows it’s based in truth. In the fable, a thirsty crow put stones in a pitcher to raise the level of water to be drinkable.

A new article in Current Biology discusses rooks – smart birds in the crow family. In the study, rooks learned to use stones to raise the water level enough to eat a floating worm. Researcher Christopher Bird from the University of Cambridge notes that the only other animal known to complete a similar task is the orangutan.

All four birds used in the study were able to figure out how to use stones to get their worms. Rooks “Cook” and “Fry” got it on their first attempts, but “Connelly” and “Monroe” took two tries. Perhaps the most amazing thing: Cook and fellow rooks put in only the exact number of stones needed to raise the water level to the reachable height!

Despite these impressive skills, rooks in the wild aren’t thought to use tools. Since food is easy enough to get, they don’t have to use tools like stones.

(Image via stock.xchng)