Joshua Klein makes a <i>hot</i> presentation. And shows how one can turn an intellectual obsession into a potent scientific/societal contribution.<p>The crow-intelligence demo is also a great rebuttal to those who complain that scientific experimentation is necessarily the /enemy/ of nature or of species preservation.<p>This video might also serve well to encourage school kids to consider science careers.
Nice talk, I wish there was more time at the end for him to talk about his ideas for mutually beneficial "arrangements" like the one idea of crows picking up trash after events etc.
I would like to see some sort of website with information on how everyone can use these techniques locally, and tools share their experiences. As Joshua said, crows are everywhere. Anyone could do this. It seems like a relatively inexpensive hobby.
My parents have an African Grey parrot Benny and his intelligence is simply amazing. First, he can talk sentences and he mimics my mom pretty good. Second, he can connect sentences to meaning, so for example, when I enter the room he'll greet me, when I leave the room he'll say goodbye. If he's hungry he'll also tell you that (actually, he is hungry most of the time :)) And I think that crows have a similar intelligence level like African Greys, so their potential is really huge.
What was amazing in the video to me was that, apparently, crows are to other birds and animals of their (brain) size, what humans are to other primates and mammals: "they stick around and figure things out".