Crows can play waiting game to get your tasty treats, study finds
Crows and ravens are often associated with darkness, evil, and Edgar Allan Poe. But few know they are more than just blood-thirsty, black giants - they are actually quite smart. Especially when it comes to food.
A research team at the Université de Strasbourg, France, have found crows are able to wait up to five minutes to swap food for better rewards, the ABC reports.
This replicates the famed Stanford marshmallow experiment, where four-year-old children were given a marshmallow and promised a second - as long as they could resist eating the first. Several succumbed to the sweet treat.
The crows in this latest study, however, were able to resist - successfully swapping tokens for food.
After receiving a piece of food, the crows were then shown an even tastier morsel. If they returned the original piece of food, they'd be given the latter in exchange.
The crows were able to wait up to five minutes before being presented with the second reward.
In order to control their impulses, most birds were observed hiding the food from view and checking on it regularly.
"The birds who succeeded at the longest delay used all these distractive tactics while waiting", lead researcher Valérie Dufour told the ABC.
This puts crows on par with other species who possess the ability to plan for the future - including humans, apes, and some other avian species.
[ABC]