Chimpanzees’ prowess at performing tasks designed to measure their intelligence excites evolutionists. It is used to push the idea that chimps are our close evolutionary cousins.

©123rf.com/Edwin Butter

Increasingly, however, research shows that parrots, crows, and other birds can surpass chimps in such intelligence tests. These findings consistently surprise the evolutionary fraternity. Birds aren’t anywhere near primates on the (supposed) ‘evolutionary tree’ and have much smaller brains. (See e.g., creation.com/pigeon-revision.)

In a recent study, researchers compared adult chimps and orangutans with young ravens; specifically 4, 8, 12, or 16 months of age. Even the 4-month-old ravens displayed intelligence rivalling that of the grown-up chimps and orangutans.

“We didn’t expect that they’d master these tasks so quickly,” said Simone Pika, cognitive scientist at Germany’s Osnabrück University. “Across a whole spectrum of cognitive skills, their intelligence is really quite amazing.”

But for all the intelligence on display from the test subjects, there is a chasm separating them from the humans doing the research. That in itself ought to point to the truth of the Bible’s creation account. In it we read that man was the only creature made in the image of God and appointed to rule over the beasts and birds. The scientific evidence for mankind’s superiority is surely overwhelming.

• Nuwer, R. and Hamilton, J., Young ravens rival adult chimps in a big test of general intelligence; scientificamerican.com, 10 Dec 2020.