Researchers trained 8 crows to use a vending machine, then removed the model they had been copying; 6 of 8 succeeded, suggesting crows can rely on memory alone

Have you ever tried to recreate a recipe from taste alone, days after a meal that stuck in your mind, with no notes or pictures to check against? A group of wild crows might be pulling off something very close to that, but with tools instead of food. In a 2018 study titled 'Mental template matching is a potential cultural transmission mechanism for New Caledonian crow tool manufacturing traditions' published in Scientific Reports, eight wild crows were trained to operate a tiny vending machine built just for them, by the final test phase, every visual cue they could have copied from was taken away. What the birds did offers a new clue about animal memory.

The vending machine that started it all