Crow Using Tools
Why Worldbuilding Stack Exchange recommends it
Worldbuilding Stack Exchange users link it as evidence that non-primate animals can use tools, especially when arguing whether a species without thumbs could build a civilization.
Recommended by 0 people across 0 different months, 2015 to 2017.
What it is
A short 2012 clip, uploaded by Mario Martins, showing crows using tools to solve a food-retrieval puzzle, with the description noting only 'Crow Intelligence'. It appears to be footage of the well-known multi-step tool-use experiment with corvids.
What people said
Cites user3652621 · 2015-01 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “Could a Species Use Tools (and Build a Civilization) Without Thumbs?”
If humans were to vanish completely from the Earth rapture-style, other primates would possibly slowly evolve and eventually take our place (in a few million years?), since they have both the basic cognitive architecture and similar manipulators that could evolve to allow finer motor control more easily, compared to a dog's brain and front paws. I have seen other non-primate animals use tools, such as ravens using tools to get tools to get food [this video] . And there are other types of manipulators even here on earth (jaws, beaks, claws, tentacles [LINK] , trunks). Heck, Koalas even have two thumbs per hand. To me, however, it seems like there's a catch - literally, in that the human hand might
Cites Erin Thursby · 2017-01 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “What can a great animal (Hyppogriff, Gryphon, etc.) learn from an elf?”
This is less about learning and more about training. They would learn: Humanoids are not food. Or at the very least, their elves aren't. Elves are different than gryphons and they can't play with them the same way they play with other gryphons. How to follow specific commands from their elves? What they can learn is tied directly to how intelligent they are. The equality of the situation--that the gryphons see them as equals, might mean that they won't follow commands. Why should they, if they are brothers? A way to communicate. Even if they don't follow commands, having words, sounds or signals that the gryphons know mean something specific, such as "danger" or "prey sighted" and the like,
Cites Mrkvička · 2017-02 · Worldbuilding Stack Exchange · on “A world without natural time measures”
They could likely develop both time and technology, but likely very slowly If we postulate that there would be essentially no variations in the nature around them - constant light, constant food supply, constant season - then timekeeping will be difficult, but not impossible. Discovering time Unless everyone is immortal, then one thing they would notice to be cyclic would be lives. They would eventually realize that everyone grow old and dies, which would give a base for starting to track time. This would still make it tricky as the time which is required for a life is quite long and it varies a lot from individual to individual, but they should still notice that something passes as they get