Article: Aesop tale more than just a fable.

A FAMOUS Aesop's fable about a canny crow with a knowledge of physics is more than just folklore, scientists have shown.

Researchers found that rooks, members of the crow family, can use stones to raise the level of water in a container - just like the bird in the tale The Crow And The Pitcher.

In the story, written thousands of years ago by the Ethiopian slave Aesop, a thirsty crow finds a pitcher containing too little water for his beak to reach.

He solves the problem by throwing pebbles into the pitcher one by one, until the water level rises high enough for him to drink.

A similar challenge faced the rooks studied by the ...

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