Rooks show there may be some truth to Aesop’s fable ‘The Crow and the Pitcher’ LA Times Blog
The Crow and the Pitcher is a fable ascribed to Aesop, number 390 in the classification established by Perry. It is found in the 2nd century AD Greek fable collection by pseudo-Dositheus,[1] and later appears in the 4th–5th century Latin verse collection by Avianus.[2]
In the fable, a thirsty crow comes upon a pitcher with water at the bottom, beyond the reach of its beak. After failing to push over the pitcher, the crow devises a clever plan: it drops in pebbles, one by one, until the water rises to the top of the pitcher, allowing the crow to drink.
Print Friendly
Brian Ertz
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
Our current State and Federal governments posit more fables that ol’ Aesop ever dreamed of…
Neat video.
I took my wedding ring off to do some hard labor at our cabin in the Sierras, set it safely on a outdoor wood table, turned my back for awhile and a raven made off with it. Smart family of birds. My wife said they were smarter than me….among other things….
yeah . . birds are supposed to have little tiny brains and hence the saying “birdbrain” but after observing them for years I have decided that they have micro-chips in those little heads.
I bet they can out think the MT DOL boys.
One of the most interesting things about this is that the rook didn’t check how much the water was raised after dropping each rock. It knew in advance how many rocks to drop.
I found out about this by reading as well as watching the video.