A public appeal has since raised more than £500,000, while the University of Cambridge has also stepped in to boost support for the Comparative Knowledge Laboratory, based in the village of Madingley. The laboratory is currently home to seven rooks and 25 jays, members of the crow – or corvid – family of birds noted for their keen intelligence, researchers found. They have complex social lives and can make tools, an ability previously thought to be possessed only by humans and a few other mammals. “Our work has shown that they are surprisingly intelligent and have provided important insights into the nature of cognition in general,” Clayton told the Observer. “However, our main source of funding came from the European Research Council, a grant that ended after the UK voted for Brexit. We were facing the imminent prospect of closure. It was horrible.” After revealing the centre’s predicament to the Observer in May, Clayton was able to launch an appeal which, with additional help from the University of Cambridge, means the center could continue its pioneering work for at least another five years and, hopefully , more. if further funds can be raised. “There are so many things we still want to learn about jays and rooks,” Clayton said. “We have shown that a jay can remember the what, where and when of a particular event. But we don’t know if he knows that he is the owner and author of a memory in the way that you and I know. “We can do this because we can talk to each other about what this shared memory means. We have to find ways to determine what memory means to a bird like a jay.” Clayton said it was also not known why jays and terns were so conspicuously intelligent compared to other birds. “They don’t use tools in the wild, but give them a problem in captivity that requires a tool to solve, and they’ll use it — or make one if they’re not provided.” A critical factor involved in the evolution of these Einstein birds could be the fact that they are highly social creatures, he said. “Maintaining bonds with other members of their species could be important for the development of their intelligence. “It’s another aspect of our research that we can continue with now that we have the money to move forward. It’s very encouraging.” Individual crows also behave in very different ways, Clayton said. “They have behavioral ways that we would see as personality differences if we were talking about humans. We have shy ones and we have bold ones, and we have some who are real charmers – like Romero, who makes a kissy sound when he meets you. Alternatively, we have Hoy, who looks like he’s ready to blow your lights out in a minute. They are fascinating creatures and the fact that so many other people find them interesting – judging by the letters of support we’ve had from the public – makes it all the more pleasing that we can continue our research.”
