As you can see from the phrase “bird-brained” in other languages, birds are not considered intelligent, especially when compared to mammals. However, this statement certainly does not fit a bird species: crows.
It is known that crows, which surprise scientists by proving their intelligence in each experiment, have more comprehension and problem-solving abilities than other birds. According to biologists, crows, which have the intelligence level of an average 7-year-old child, can perceive the concept of ‘zero’, according to the information revealed by a new study.
Andreas Neider, a professor of animal physiology at the Department of Neurobiology at the University of Tubingen in Germany, and his team, revealed in their research that crows can perceive the abstract concept of zero. According to the information obtained, the neurons of the crows encode zero like other numbers. The brain activity of crows is also sufficient to understand that ‘0’ is the number before ‘1’.
Why is It Interesting for Crows to Understand the Number ‘Zero’?
“Why would it be interesting for them to understand the concept of zero, don’t animals already understand that something’s not there?” you can say. However, the situation is not that simple. Zero, which is an abstract concept, could only be fully grasped in the 5th century AD. It is thought that this date may go back several centuries. ‘Understanding zero’ here is not understanding that something does not exist, but understanding the meaning of zero in mathematics.
They Were Able to Distinguish Like Any Other Number
In the study, published June 2, two male scavenger crows were put to the test with computers. When the pictures on the monitor opposite their perches matched, the crows were trained to hit the screen, and they were shown pictures consisting of 0 to 4 dots. The crows, who were trained not to react even if the pictures did not match, were generally successful, although they sometimes made mistakes in numbers that were close to each other (2 and 3, 3 and 4).
Same test as before, without a blank screen with zero dots; It was made with the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4. In the new test, the crows, who perceived the number ‘0’ as they perceived other numbers, showed that they could also perceive the ‘0’ in mathematics, apart from understanding that something was wrong. In a repeat of the test, glass-covered cables were connected to the brains of the crows. It was observed that the pallium regions in the hindbrain were more active when performing the test of the crows whose brain activity was monitored. Crows, who turned out to understand the concept of ‘zero’ like monkeys, once again proved their superior intelligence.
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