Betty the crow may not have invented her hook-bending tool trick

Textbook example of ‘spontaneous’ toolmaking challenged by wild bird studies

crow bending stick

BIRD BENDING  A wild New Caledonian crow has used a hook it made to snag an insect. New studies of twig bending raise questions about an earlier report of a lab bird’s possible toolmaking insight.

James St Clair

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Betty, heralded as a toolmaking prodigy among New Caledonian crows, may not have been such a whiz bird after all.