Name: 烏鴉和人類一樣聰明嗎？ (Are Crows As Smart As Humans?)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T06:31:23.000Z
Duration: 3 min 46 s

You know how a group of crows is called a murder? Turns out that murder can be pretty scary.

你知道為什麼一群烏鴉在一起的時候會被叫做殺人魔嗎？事實上這種殺人魔可是相當嚇人的。

so we know how crazy smart animals like dolphins, pigs, chimps and octopuses, octopi are…

我們都知道聰明的動物們像是海豚、豬、黑猩猩和章魚，章魚們有多瘋狂

right? Oh god I might have to talk about cephalopods in a future episode, god they’re cool. Anyway,

是吧？哦，天哪，我將來可能必須要做一集來討論頭足類動物，天啊，牠們超酷的。無論如何

have you thought about that murder of crows sitting outside your house?

你們有想過一群烏鴉殺手坐在你家門外嗎？

是啊，那些傢伙可是非常之聰明。

Scientists used to think that one of things that separated humans from animals was the

科學家過去認為讓人與動物之間有所不同的一件事就是

making of and use of tools, like spears and stuff. But that all changed when researchers

製作和使用工具，像是矛和其他東西。但是，這樣的想法已經有所改變了，因為研究人員

like Jane Goodall realized that chimps use sticks as tools to get ants out of logs. Suddenly

像是珍．古德曼發現黑猩猩會用細棍子當作工具來抓木頭裡的螞蟻。一夕之間

Scientists consider the corvid family, which includes crows, magpies, and ravens, some

科學家們認為鴨科的這一個家族中，包括烏鴉、鵲、渡鴨，是

I guess big things come in small packages. Despite that tiny brain span, crows are no

我猜這就是大東西裝在小包裹裡的感覺吧，儘管只有小小的腦袋，烏鴉可不是

One of the most famous examples of crow intelligence is the way they make hooks to get food. One

跟烏鴉智慧有關的一個最有名的例子就是她們製作鉤子來獲取食物，有一個

study published in the journal Philosophical Transactions B found that crows on New Caledonia,

研究發表在英國皇家學會報告期刊B系列中提到在新喀里多尼亞

a South Pacific island, take stripes of leaves and shape them into hooks to get food out

一個南太平洋小島的烏鴉，用條狀的樹葉做出鉤子的形狀把食物勾出來

of tricky places, like grubs out of tree stumps.

從一些奇怪的地方，像是從樹樁中挖出幼蟲來。

Another study in PLOS One found that they understand complex concepts like water displacement.

另一項發表在PLOS期刊的研究則是發現了烏鴉們能夠了解複雜的概念像是排水量。

Like in Aesops fables when a bird drops a pebble in a glass to raise the water level

就像是伊索寓言裡那隻鳥兒把石頭丟進水瓶裡讓水位升高

so he can drink it, they can actually do that.

之後牠就可以喝到水了，牠們真的會這麼做。

There’s all sorts of stories of crows getting clever for food. In Japan, crows will place

有各式各樣關於烏鴉為了取得食物而變得越來越聰明。在日本，烏鴉會把

walnuts in the middle of the road, then fly away and wait for a car to drive over them,

胡桃放在路中間，然後飛走等有車子經過

cracking it open. If it doesn’t work the first time, the crow will move the walnut

把胡桃壓碎打開。如果第一次沒有成功，烏鴉會把胡桃移到

to another place in the road and try again.

I mean most human kids don’t know how to use a tool to get something they want before

我想說的是大多數人類的小孩並不懂得利用工具去拿到他們想要的東西

the age of two and can’t understand volume displacement until the age of 5 or 7. So you

在2歲之前，而且他們也不了解排水量這類東西在5或7歲之前，所以你

could say crows are smarter than your average child. that is terrifying.

可以說烏鴉比一般的人類小孩要聰明。而那真是太可怕了。

And some studies show that they understand analogies and there’s some anecdotal evidence

而且，有些研究顯示牠們懂得比擬，另外有一些有趣的證據

that crows do stuff for the fun of it, like sledding down a snowy roof on a bottle cap

證明烏鴉會為了有趣做一些事，像是用瓶蓋當作雪橇滑下積雪的屋頂

or putting poop in deer’s ears. Yeah I’m not kidding on that one.

或是在鹿的耳朵放大便之類的。真的，我可沒有開玩笑哦。

How do they do this if they have such tiny and different brains. Well one study published

牠們是怎麼做到的呢？既然牠們只有那麼那麼小而又與眾不同的腦袋。有一個研究發表

in the journal Nature Communications describes how. Most of our big brained smarts lies in

在自然通訊期刊中，這份研究說明了原因，我們大腦智慧的大部分分布在

the prefrontal cortex. Scientists think this area is responsible for things like reason

前額葉皮層。科學家認為這塊區域負責推理

and controlling emotions. But birds don’t have this. Their smarts evolved convergently,

和控制情緒。但是鳥類沒有這個部分，牠們的智慧是趨同進化

or independently from ours. Instead, the seat of crow’s intelligence lies in the nidopallium

或是和我們完全不一樣的。相反的，烏鴉的智慧分布在一個叫做nidopallium caudolaterale

caudolaterale. This part of the brain helps the crow form memories, learn and even make

caudolaterale的區域，在大腦中的這個部分幫助烏鴉形成記憶，學習並且甚至可以進行

Why did they evolve such complicated brains? I mean they are birds. Researchers think their environment plays

為什麼牠們會進化出這麼複雜的腦袋呢？我是說，牠們是鳥啊。研究人員認為牠們的生活環境是一個重要的

a big role. The crow family can be found in variety of ecosystems and eat a variety of

因素。烏鴉家族可以在各種不同的生態系統中發現並且是雜食

food, so they’d have to be able to adapt to changing landscapes. Like humans, they

動物，所以牠們必須可以適應不同的陸地環境。就像人類，牠們

are very social creatures. And solving both social and ecological problems required bigger

也是高度社會性的動物，而要同時解決群居社會與生態環境問題需要更大的

and one last note, don’t be a dick to a bird. He’ll remember. Scientists from the

最後一個小提醒，不要對鳥兒們做出一些混帳事，科學家在

university of Washington found that the birds would remember faces that were mean to them in the past.

華盛頓大學中從事的研究發現鳥類會記得那些曾經對牠們有惡意的人的臉

Whenever the researchers walked around campus, the birds that they had previously

每當研究人員在校園中經過鳥兒們的時候，那些曾經被研究人員

captured or trapped would scold them! But not just those birds, other crows that had

捕捉過的鳥兒們會發出咒罵他們的叫聲哦！不只是被捉過的鳥，其他烏鴉們雖然

never been trapped before also scolded the researchers! Which means the crows are a talking.

從來沒有被抓過也會跟著對研究人員們發出不滿的叫聲。這也就表示，烏鴉之間會交談。

If you piss one off, you might piss off a whole murder.

如果你惹惱了其中的一隻，你有可能惹上了一整群的殺人魔哦。