Corvids including crows, ravens, jays, and jackdaws demonstrate remarkable cognitive abilities including tool use and future planning, with significant implications for how we consider their welfare needs.
The demonstrated cognitive sophistication of corvids has significant welfare implications. Animals capable of future planning, tool manufacture, and social understanding are likely capable of more complex positive and negative experiences than previously recognized. Corvids in captivity have complex social and cognitive needs that many enclosures fail to meet. Even wild corvids can experience welfare problems from urban food insecurity, toxicosis from lead shot in carrion, and habitat loss reducing nesting sites.