Can crows and ravens really use tools?

The answer

New Caledonian crows are among the most sophisticated tool users in the animal kingdom, crafting hooked stick tools and stepped-cut pandanus leaf tools to extract insects from crevices. They display tool innovation, modification, and even meta-tool use, where they use one tool to obtain another tool to reach food. In laboratory experiments, crows have solved multi-step puzzles requiring planning, such as sequentially using three different tools. Ravens have demonstrated the ability to plan for future events, selecting and storing tools they will need for tasks they will face the next day. These abilities appear to be culturally transmitted, with different crow populations maintaining distinct tool-making traditions passed from parent to offspring.