New Caledonian crows are famous for their ability to craft sticks into hooked tools, which they use to probe for larvae and insects hidden in trees. But why they do this has been anyone’s guess ...

In New Caledonia, an island off the eastern coast of Australia, a crow is hunting for beetle grubs. The larvae are hidden within a decaying tree trunk, which might seem like an impregnable fortress.

Crows are spectacularly intelligent creatures. Previous studies have shown that a particularly perceptive corvid species, the New Caledonian crow, may even be smarter than a first-grader—at ...