[12ren]

Crows "finding" money is problematic, as it might not be "lost"... intelligence (evolution, flow of water, etc) has a way of finding the shortest path. It seems tricky to specify the goal clearly, so the crows are trained to find only "lost" money. Perhaps only reward them for coins that were on the ground? As opposed to in someone's pocket, purse, on a shop counter, in a cash register, in a bank... hmm, this experiment could end badly.

Crows more intelligent than monkeys, he claims in the following (1 min) video. Could that be true? http://www.npr.org/blogs/bryantpark/2008/03/taking_over_the_...

We try to kill off adaptive pests like roaches, rats and crows, but we're breeding them to be parasites ... a better goal ... is to seek an interspecies harmony.

Lovely idea! Reminds me of how parasites became symbiotes, then integrated, as has been argued for some cellular machinery (eg mitochondria and chloroplasts) by Lynn Margulis: http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R3IIWSOA7G9YKL . It also reminds me of "The Evolution of Cooperation" Axelrod http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Evolution_of_Cooperation