Researchers at the University of St Andrews spent decades filming wild New Caledonian crows and documented individuals sculpting forked twigs into hooks, trimming pandanus leaves into barbed probes, and passing tool designs down family lines with variations so consistent that the birds effectively run regional traditions in stick manufacture

Researchers at the University of St Andrews spent decades filming wild New Caledonian crows and documented individuals sculpting forked twigs into hooks, trimming pandanus leaves into barbed probes, and passing tool designs down family lines with variations so consistent that the birds effectively run regional traditions in stick manufacture

On the South Pacific island of New Caledonia, a black crow the size of a jackdaw picks up a forked twig, snips it with its beak, trims the side branch to a stub, and works the stub into a small hook. The bird then pushes the hook into a crevice in a rotting log and drags out a grub. The tool is not improvised. It follows a design the bird has been refining since it was a fledgling, and one that its parents were making before it hatched. The spec…