1. How many of you have seen the Alfred Hitchcock film "The Birds"? Any of you get really freaked out by
that? You might want to leave now. (Laughter) So, this is a vending machine for crows. And over the past
few days, many of you have been asking me, "How did you come to this? How did you get started doing
this?" And it started, as with many great ideas, or many ideas you can't get rid of anyway, at a cocktail
party. About 10 years ago, I was at a cocktail party with a friend of mine, and we're sitting there, and he
was complaining about the crows that he had seen that were all over his yard and making a big mess.
And he was telling me that really, we ought to try and eradicate these things. We gotta kill them because
they're making a mess. I said that was stupid, you know, maybe we should just train them to do
something useful. And he said that was impossible.
ヒッチコック監督の映画 「鳥」は見ましたか？ あまりの怖さに発狂した人は？ 席を外された方が...
（笑） これはカラスのための自動販売機です 最近良く聞かれるんですよ ”なんでこうなった？”ってね 素
晴らしいアイデアとは いつも まあそれほど素晴らしくなくとも カクテルパーティで生まれるものです
１０年ほど前 カクテルパーティで友達が カラスが庭を荒らしまわると カラスの文句を言い出しました
絶滅させるべきだと言うんです 退治しなきゃ と言う彼に 僕は 馬鹿げてる と言いました 調教したら？と
提案すると そんなの無理だろって言うんですね
And I'm sure I'm in good company in finding that tremendously annoying -- when someone tells you it's
impossible. So, I spent the next 10 years reading about crows in my spare time. (Laughter) And after 10
years of this, my wife eventually said, "Look, you know, you gotta do this thing you've been talking about,
and build the vending machine." So I did. But part of the reason that I found this interesting is that I
started noticing that we are very aware of all the species that are going extinct on the planet as a result of
human habitation expansion, and no one seems to be paying attention to all the species that are actually
living -- that are surviving. And I'm talking specifically about synanthropic species, which are species that
have adapted specifically for human ecologies, species like rats and cockroaches and crows.
僕は誰かが「無理だ」と言うと 妙にムカついちゃって その後１０年間 空いた時間はカラスの勉強に費や
しました （笑） １０年経って 妻が言いました 「ずっと言い続けてた 自動販売機を作ってみたら？」っ
てね それで実行しました 興味深いのは 人間の居住地拡大に伴って 絶滅しそうな種の存在には 敏感な私
たちですが 今現在「生き残っている」種に対しては 無関心だという点です 特に 「共ヒト生」の種につ
いてはそうです 人間の生活環境に適合してきた動物たちです ネズミやゴキブリ カラスなどですね
And as I started looking at them, I was finding that they had hyper-adapted. They'd become extremely
adept at living with us. And in return, we just tried to kill them all the time. And in doing so, we were
breeding them for parasitism. We were giving them all sorts of reasons to adapt new ways. So, for
example, rats are incredibly responsive breeders. And cockroaches, as anyone who's tried to get rid of
them knows, have become really immune to the poisons that we're using. So, I thought, let's build
something that's mutually beneficial. Well, then let's build something that we can both benefit from, and
find some way to make a new relationship with these species. And so I built the vending machine.
彼らの適応力には目を見張ります 人類と共に生きられるよう進化したんです それに引き替え 私たちは殺
そうとするばかり それが なおさら彼らを「寄生」させています 適合するしかない状況を作っているの
です ネズミは凄い速さで増えますし 退治した経験のある方ならご存じのように ゴキブリは殺虫剤に強く
なりました 双方に有益な道はないのか考えたんです お互いに利益を得られるものを考えてみようと 新し
い関係を模索しようと考えました そしてこの機械なんですね
Joshua Klein- Vending Machine for Crows Transcript

2. But the story of the vending machine is a little more interesting if you know more about crows. It turns out
that crows aren't just surviving with human beings -- they're actually really thriving. They're found
everywhere on the planet except for the Arctic and the southern tip of South America. And in all that area,
they're only rarely found breeding more than five kilometers away from human beings. So we may not
think about them, but they're always around. And not surprisingly, given the human population growth,
more than half of the human population is living in cities now. And out of those, nine-tenths of the human
growth population is occurring in cities. We're seeing a population boom with crows. So bird counts are
indicating that we might be seeing up to exponential growth in their numbers. So that's no great surprise.
その前に カラスについて少し お話ししましょう 彼らはかろうじて生き延びている訳ではなく 実際はと
ても繁栄しています 北極と南米大陸の最南端を除いた あらゆる場所に生息していて そのほとんどが 人
間の居住地から ５キロ以内に住んでいます 私たちは気にしませんが 彼らはいつも側にいるのです 人類
の人口増加を考えれば− 全人口の過半数は都市部に住んでいて 人口増加の９割が 都市部で起きているの
ですが− カラスも共に人口爆発しているのです 私たちは彼らの急激な増殖に 立ち会っているのかも知れ
ません でもそれ以上に
But what was really interesting to me was to find out that the birds were adapting in a pretty unusual way.
And I'll give you an example of that. So this is Betty. She's a New Caledonian crow. And these crows use
sticks in the wild to get insects and whatnot out of pieces of wood. Here, she's trying to get a piece of
meat out of a tube. But the researchers had a problem. They messed up and left just a stick of wire in
there. And she hadn't had the opportunity to do this before. You see, it wasn't working very well. So she
adapted.
本当に興味深いのは 彼らの適応能力です 例をお見せしましょう カレドニアガラスのベティです この種
のカラスは小枝を使って 木からエサを捕る習性があります 今もエサを捕ろうとしていますが 研究員がミ
スをしました ただの針金を与えてしまったのです 彼女はこんな経験は初めてです うまくいかないようで
すね でも彼女は適応するんです
Now this is completely unprompted. She had never seen this done before. No one taught her to bend this
into a hook, had shown her how it could happen. But she did it all on her own. So keep in mind that she's
never seen this done. Right. (Laughter) Yeah. All right. (Applause) That's the part where the researchers
freak out. (Laughter)
これは完全に自発的な行動です 見た事もありません 曲げてフックにするなんて 誰も教えてないんです
でも自分で発見するんです 見た事がないにも関わらずです そうそう （笑） はい 良くできました （拍
手） 研究員が発狂した場面です （笑）
So, it turns out we've been finding more and more that crows are really, really intelligent. Their brains are
proportionate, in the same proportion as chimpanzee brains are. There are all kinds of anecdotes for
different kinds of intelligence they have. For example, in Sweden, crows will wait for fishermen to drop
lines through holes in the ice. And when the fishermen move off, the crows fly down, reel up the lines, and
eat the fish or the bait. It's pretty annoying for the fishermen.
カラスは本当に賢いことが 明らかになってきています 脳の大きさの比率は チンパンジーのそれと同等で
す 彼らの知恵の数だけ逸話もあります スウェーデンでは 釣り人が氷の穴に糸を垂らすのを待ち 釣り人
が場を離れると 糸を引き上げ 魚や釣り を食べるのです 釣り人にとってはいい迷惑です
Joshua Klein- Vending Machine for Crows Transcript

3. On an entirely different tack, at University of Washington, they, a few years ago, were doing an
experiment where they captured some crows on campus. Some students went out and netted some
crows, brought them in, and were -- weighed them, and measured them and whatnot, and then let them
back out again. And were entertained to discover that for the rest of the week, these crows, whenever
these particular students walked around campus, these crows would caw at them, and run around and
make their life kind of miserable.
別の話になりますが 数年前 ワシントン大学で 学生が研究のために カラスを捕まえていました 何人かの
学生がカラスを捕獲して 体重を量ったりいろいろしてたんです 調査が終わると放します 面白い事に そ
の週の間 カラスたちは 自分を捕まえた学生が現れる度に 彼らに向かってカーカー鳴いたり 歩き回った
りして からかうんです
They were significantly less entertained when this went on for the next week. And the next month. And
after summer break. Until they finally graduated and left campus, and -- glad to get away, I'm sure -- came
back sometime later, and found the crows still remembered them. So -- the moral being, don't piss off
crows. So now, students at the University of Washington that are studying these crows do so with a giant
wig and a big mask. (Laughter) It's fairly interesting.
こんな状態が翌月も 夏休みが明けても まだ続いたので 笑ってもいられなくなりました 結局 卒業するま
で続きました さぞ嬉しかったでしょうね でも卒業後もなお 彼らを覚えているんです カラスを怒らせる
と罰が当たりますよ 今では カラスについて 研究する学生達は カツラと覆面をかぶるんですよ （笑） 興
味深いですね
So we know that these crows are really smart, but the more I dug into this, the more I found that they
actually have an even more significant adaptation.
Video: Crows have become highly skilled at making a living in these new urban environments. In this
Japanese city, they have devised a way of eating a food that normally they can't manage: drop it among
the traffic. The problem now is collecting the bits, without getting run over. Wait for the light to stop the
traffic. Then, collect your cracked nut in safety.
カラスは本当に賢いんです でも 調べれば調べるほど さらに高度な適応能力を発見しました
ビデオ： カラスは都会の環境の中で 巧みに生きるすべを見つけています この日本のカラスは 堅い木の
実を 食べる方法を発見しました 車に轢いてもらうのです でも 自分が轢かれることなく拾うには どうす
れば良いでしょうか 信号が変わるのを待ちましょう そうすれば安全に拾えますね
(Laughter) (Applause) Joshua Klein: Yeah, yeah. Pretty interesting. So what's significant about this isn't
that crows are using cars to crack nuts. In fact, that's old hat for crows. This happened about 10 years
ago in a place called Sendai City, at a driving school in the suburbs of Tokyo. And since that time, all of
the crows in the neighborhood are picking up this behavior. And now, every crow within five kilometers is
standing by a sidewalk, waiting to collect its lunch.
（笑） （拍手） はい なかなか面白いですね ポイントは 車を使って木の実を割るところではありません
これはカラスには朝飯前なのです １０年ほど前に 仙台にある 自動車学校で起こりました それからとい
うもの 近隣のカラスがマネをするようになりました 今ではこの辺りのカラスは お昼を食べようと みん
な歩道で待ち構えています
Joshua Klein- Vending Machine for Crows Transcript

4. So, they're learning from each other. And research bears this out. Parents seem to be teaching their
young. They've learned from their peers. They've learned from their enemies. If I have a little extra time,
I'll tell you about a case of crow infidelity that illustrates that nicely. The point being that they've developed
cultural adaptation. And as we heard yesterday, that's the Pandora's box that's getting human beings in
trouble, and we're starting to see it with them. They're able to very quickly and very flexibly adapt to new
challenges and new resources in their environment, which is really useful if you live in a city.
彼らは互いに学習することが実証されています 親は子供を教育しますし 仲間から学習し 敵からも学びま
す 時間があれば これを象徴するカラスの裏切りについて お話するんですけどね 彼らは文化的適応を修
得したんです 昨日の講演で聞いたように これは人類を苦しめるパンドラの箱かも知れません カラスにそ
れを見ているのです 彼らは環境や資源の変化に 迅速に 柔軟に適応することが可能です 都会に住むには
好都合でしょう
So we know that there's lots of crows. We found out they're really smart, and we found out that they can
teach each other. And when all this became clear to me, I realized the only obvious thing to do is build a
vending machine. So that's what we did. This is a vending machine for crows. And it uses Skinnerian
training to shape their behavior over four stages. It's pretty simple. Basically, what happens is that we put
this out in a field, or someplace where there's lots of crows, and we put coins and peanuts all around the
base of the machine. And crows eventually come by, and eat the peanuts and get used to the machine
being there. And eventually, they eat up all the peanuts. And then they see that there are peanuts here on
the feeder tray, and they hop up and help themselves. And then they leave, and the machine spits up
more coins and peanuts, and life is really dandy, if you're a crow. Then you can come back anytime and
get yourself a peanut.
さて カラスがどこにでも存在し 頭が良く 互いに学習することが分かりました これらの事実が明確に
なったので 自動販売機を作ろうと思い立ったんです これがそうです カラスのための自販機です スキ
ナー理論を使い ４つの段階に分けて学習させます とても単純です まず この機械を野原やどこかの カラ
スがいる場所に設置します そしてコインとエサを周りにばらまきます 彼らはエサを食べに来るようにな
り 機械の存在にも慣れ やがて落ちているエサを食べ尽くします 機械のトレイにまだエサがあるのを見
ると 飛び乗って食べるようになります 彼らが去ったら 更にコインとエサをばらまきます カラスにとっ
ては夢のようです ここに来れば食事にありつけるのです
So, when they get really used to that, we move on to the crows coming back. Now, they're used to the
sound of the machine, and they keep coming back, and digging out these peanuts from amongst the pile
of coins that's there. And when they get really happy about this, we go ahead and stymie them.
次の段階では 常連になったカラスに着目します 彼らは機械の騒音にも慣れ 何度も戻ってきては コイン
の山からエサを探すのも苦にしません 彼らが幸せを享受しだしたら 苦難を授けます
Joshua Klein- Vending Machine for Crows Transcript

5. And we move to the third stage, where we only give them a coin. Now, like most of us who have gotten
used to a good thing, this really pisses them off. So, they do what they do in nature when they're looking
for something -- they sweep things out of the way with their beak. And they do that here, and that knocks
the coins down the slot, and when that happens, they get a peanut. And so this goes on for some time.
The crows learn that all they have to do is show up, wait for the coin to come out, put the coin in the slot,
and then they get their peanut.
３つ目の段階では コインしか与えません 楽な生活に慣れた人間と同様に カラスも腹を立てます 物を探
すときに本能的にやるように くちばしで辺りを掃き散らかします そして偶然にもコインがスロットに入
ると エサが出てきます しばらくこれを続けます やがて彼らはコインが出てくるのを待ち スロットに入
れればエサが出ることを学びます
And when they're really good and comfortable with that, we move to the final stage, in which they show
up and nothing happens. And this is where we see the difference between crows and other animals.
Squirrels, for example, would show up, look for the peanut, go away. Come back, look for the peanut, go
away. They do this maybe half a dozen times before they get bored, and then they go off and play in
traffic.
この日常に慣れてきたら 「何も起きない」 という最終ステージに進みます カラスが他の動物との違いを
見せるところです リスの場合 エサがなければ去っていきます また探しに来ますが すぐ諦めます これを
数回繰り返して 飽きてしまいます そして道路に飛び出すんです
Crows, on the other hand, show up, and they try and figure it out. They know that this machine's been
messing with them, through three different stages of behavior. (Laughter) They figure it's gotta have more
to it. So, they poke at it and peck at it and whatnot. And eventually some crow gets a bright idea that,
"Hey, there's lots of coins lying around from the first stage, lying around on the ground," hops down, picks
it up, drops it in the slot. And then, we're off to the races. That crow enjoys a temporary monopoly on
peanuts, until his friends figure out how to do it, and then there we go.
カラスの場合は 問題を解決しようとします 彼らは この機械が３つの段階を経て 自分たちをもてあそん
で来た事を知っています （笑） まだ何かあると考えるんですね なので 押したり突いたりするんです や
がて彼らはひらめきます 「ステージ１で使ったコインがたくさん落ちてるぞ」 地上のコインを拾い ス
ロットに投入します ここまで来たら話は早いです そのカラスは一時的にエサを独占できますが それも周
りが気づくまでです
Joshua Klein- Vending Machine for Crows Transcript

6. So, what's significant about this to me isn't that we can train crows to pick up peanuts. Mind you, there's
216 million dollars' worth of change lost every year, but I'm not sure I can depend on that ROI from crows.
Instead, I think we should look a little bit larger. I think that crows can be trained to do other things. For
example, why not train them to pick up garbage after stadium events? Or find expensive components
from discarded electronics? Or maybe do search and rescue? The main thing, the main point of all this for
me is that we can find mutually beneficial systems for these species. We can find ways to interact with
these other species that doesn't involve exterminating them, but involves finding an equilibrium with them
that's a useful balance. Thanks very much. (Applause)
僕にとって重要なのは カラスで稼げるという事ではありません 私たちは毎年２億ドルの小銭を紛失して
いますが カラスにそこまでの投資利益率は求められません ですが より大きく考えてはどうでしょう カ
ラスは他の事にも訓練できると思うのです 競技場でゴミを拾わせるとか 廃棄物から 高価なパーツを探さ
せるとか 遭難者の探索などです この話のポイントは 共に有益な社会は構築可能だということです 彼ら
と共生していく方法− 彼らを駆逐するのではなく 共に助け合う バランスの取れた関係はなし得るのです
ありがとうございました （拍手）
Joshua Klein- Vending Machine for Crows Transcript