<story><title>Crows have been shown to understand the concept of zero</title><url>https://www.quantamagazine.org/animals-can-count-and-use-zero-how-far-does-their-number-sense-go-20210809/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Gravey</author><text>I once watched several seagulls peck at a closed clamshell container containing pizza crusts for over half an hour. Clearly there is an upper bound to their intelligence.</text></item><item><author>krylon</author><text>The more I learn about animal intelligence, the more I suspect we grossly underestimate it.&lt;p&gt;I recently saw a video of a seagull that entered a grocery store through the automatic door, picked up a (non-transparent) bag of potato chips (or something similar), walked out again, opened the bag and ate the chips. Think about it for a moment, the bird has to understand (to a degree) how an automatic door works, and that there is food inside these shiny bags. When let that sink in, I was thoroughly impressed. I knew seagulls are very opportunistic eaters, but I did not know they were capable of this degree of intelligence and planning.&lt;p&gt;I wonder how much more there is discover, and how that might affect how we view and more importantly treat animals. We might have to rethink our relationship with them.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>edgyquant</author><text>I watched a crack head at the park look for something on the ground for an hour once.  Clearly there is an upper bound for human intelligence as well &amp;#x2F;s</text></comment>
<story><title>Crows have been shown to understand the concept of zero</title><url>https://www.quantamagazine.org/animals-can-count-and-use-zero-how-far-does-their-number-sense-go-20210809/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Gravey</author><text>I once watched several seagulls peck at a closed clamshell container containing pizza crusts for over half an hour. Clearly there is an upper bound to their intelligence.</text></item><item><author>krylon</author><text>The more I learn about animal intelligence, the more I suspect we grossly underestimate it.&lt;p&gt;I recently saw a video of a seagull that entered a grocery store through the automatic door, picked up a (non-transparent) bag of potato chips (or something similar), walked out again, opened the bag and ate the chips. Think about it for a moment, the bird has to understand (to a degree) how an automatic door works, and that there is food inside these shiny bags. When let that sink in, I was thoroughly impressed. I knew seagulls are very opportunistic eaters, but I did not know they were capable of this degree of intelligence and planning.&lt;p&gt;I wonder how much more there is discover, and how that might affect how we view and more importantly treat animals. We might have to rethink our relationship with them.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lhorie</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s been reported that younger gulls initially try to open clams (the animal clams, not plastic containers) by pecking. I believe they learn the dropping-from-a-height tactic from observation, and suspect that the pecking at a plastic container is merely due to them not having seen it being open by a gull before. Also, worth considering that in their natural habitat, the only transparent things around (jellyfish) are squishy and stingy.</text></comment>