“It’s not really appropriate to pit one species against another, as each has evolved different skills or ways of thinking that provide them with an advantage in one test, but a disadvantage in another. There isn’t an IQ test for animals to rank their intelligence.”
For example, lab tests have shown that rooks and crows are better than eight-year-old children at reaching a treat by making a wire hook, but of course there are many things eight-year-old humans can do that rooks and crows can’t.
For a long time birds had only one known tool-maker: the New Caledonian crow. But just this year, scientists discovered that the ‘alalā, or Hawaiian crow, is also capable of making and using tools. The ‘alalā is actually extinct in the wild, but 109 individuals survive in captivity today.
Worryingly, only a handful of bird species (out of 10,000-plus) have actually been systematically tested on their intelligence. Even whole bird families have never been tested, including most of the world’s raptors.
All this means we need to rethink how we treat birds, according to Emery.
“The domestic chicken is the most populous bird in the world, which we consume in massive numbers. But, if I told you that day old chicks can count or they can tell if two objects are the same or different, a so-called abstract concept, would you think twice about eating chicken?”
I would have assumed they could tell if two objects are different or not anyway - that's not intelligence. Being aware that more is different to less isn't intelligence either. But still... hurry up with that lab-grown chicken, eh ?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/radical-conservation/2016/nov/05/birds-intelligence-tools-crows-parrots-conservation-ethics-chickens
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