like many kids
Gabby likes to collect things but her
treasures aren't dolls or stickers metal
plastic buttons screws rocks more glass
bones a lot of things and it's not just
the content of her collection that's
unusual it's who gave it to her
there are my friends and some of them
are like family they're really nice
at least also been my thing
Gabby's not refer to her friends at
school but to the crows in her backyard
over the past two and a half years these
generous garden visitors have been
regularly bringing her gifts her
collection now contains over a hundred
different objects some dropped right at
her feet and her collection is still
growing can I show you one right now
have one right in my ass bias quit that
I got week ago I'd heard about gifting
before but this was the most extensive
collection by far I'd ever seen a lot of
animals use gifts of one sort of the
other to convey either their status or
their interest in another partner but as
far as we know Corbin's are the only
birds that do this with people
crows give gifts to people really to
help cement a bond an important
relationship that they have with this
person so how common are crow
companionships like daddy's there's
probably 20 or 30 instances of this
happening around the world and they all
have some consistency in terms of a
person that's been engaging quite
actively with the birds feeding them a
lot consistently maybe even rescuing
them we've had cases where a crow was
stuck in a fence and a woman took the
crow out of the fence and then started
getting gifts so the gifts seem to be a
thank you for the food that Gaby leaves
out for them pretty good manners but is
there a motive behind their kindness
crows are undoubtedly some of the
smartest animals on our planet they have
an extremely large brain for their body
size because they live a long life
sometimes more than 20 years they can
develop some cunning ways to find food
in addition to befriend in people
studies have shown that crows are
capable of using a sequence of tools to
find a tasty reward something that
previously only humans and chimpanzees
were thought to have the brain power to
do whatever the motive gabi certainly
has a very special bond with the clothes
in her back
you