ArticleNature2016
Discovery of species-wide tool use in the Hawaiian crow.
Article in Nature, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 138 citations in OpenAlex.
- The importance of migratory drop-off for island colonization in birds.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Pooled it
- Beyond the Chicken: Alternative Avian Models for Developmental Physiological Research.Frontiers in physiology · 2021Pooled it
- Learning pathway determines motor organization and long-term retention of tool use in hornbills.iScience · 2026Article
- The flexible, the stereotyped and the in-between: putting together the combinatory tool use origins hypothesis.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Wild jackdaws learn to tolerate juveniles to exploit new foraging opportunities.Biology letters · 2025Article
- The growing methodological toolkit for identifying and studying social learning and culture in non-human animals.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- "Distribution of dominant wavelengths predicts jackdaw (Frontiers in physiology · 2025Article
- Mechanical problem solving by plush-crested jays: are tools special after all?Animal cognition · 2024Article
- Solitary humpback whales manufacture bubble-nets as tools to increase prey intake.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Protracted development of stick tool use skills extends into adulthood in wild western chimpanzees.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Coupling of coastal activity with tidal cycles is stronger in tool-using capuchins (Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Relationship between flightlessness and brain morphology among Rallidae.Journal of anatomy · 2022Article
- How to behave when marooned: the behavioural component of the island syndrome remains underexplored.Biology letters · 2022Review
- When does cultural evolution become cumulative culture? A case study of humpback whale song.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Article
- Young Children's Interactions with Objects: Play as Practice and Practice as Play.Annual review of developmental psychology · 2021Article
- Self-care tooling innovation in a disabled kea (Nestor notabilis).Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Carry-over effects of tool functionality and previous unsuccessfulness increase overimitation in children.Royal Society open science · 2021Article
- A deepening understanding of animal culture suggests lessons for conservation.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Convergent evolution of complex cognition: Insights from the field of avian cognition into the study of self-awareness.Learning & behavior · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Only a handful of bird species are known to use foraging tools in the wild. Amongst them, the New Caledonian crow (Corvus moneduloides) stands out with its sophisticated tool-making skills. Despite considerable speculation, the evolutionary origins of this species' remarkable tool behaviour remain largely unknown, not least because no naturally tool-using congeners have yet been identified that would enable informative comparisons. Here we show that another tropical corvid, the 'Alalā (C. hawaiiensis; Hawaiian crow), is a highly dexterous tool user. Although the 'Alalā became extinct in the wild in the early 2000s, and currently survives only in captivity, at least two lines of evidence suggest that tool use is part of the species' natural behavioural repertoire: juveniles develop functional tool use without training, or social input from adults; and proficient tool use is a species-wide capacity. 'Alalā and New Caledonian crows evolved in similar environments on remote tropical islands, yet are only distantly related, suggesting that their technical abilities arose convergently. This supports the idea that avian foraging tool use is facilitated by ecological conditions typical of islands, such as reduced competition for embedded prey and low predation risk. Our discovery creates exciting opportunities for comparative research on multiple tool-using and non-tool-using corvid species. Such work will in turn pave the way for replicated cross-taxonomic comparisons with the primate lineage, enabling valuable insights into the evolutionary origins of tool-using behaviour.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.