The new Planet of the Apes movie has people imagining what an ape-ruled world with human underlings would really look like , but maybe ravens are the animals we should be keeping an eye on.

The dazzling intelligence of corvids the family that includes ravens and crows is well-documented. Studies have suggested that corvids rival chimps in cognitive self-control . Ravens can imagine being spied on , and crows display puzzle-solving skills comparable to those of apes and human children.

Research published Friday in the journal Science adds even more evidence to the pile. Scientists from Swedens Lund University found that ravens appear to have the ability to plan for the future.

Cognitive zoologist Mathias Osvath and graduate student Can Kabadayi presented five ravens with a series of puzzles. First, they taught the birds how to get a food treat out of a puzzle box using a specific tool. The ravens also got the opportunity to interact with the puzzle box with no tools, and with objects that would not open it.

Then they presented the birds with no puzzle box visible an array of options, including the functional tool and a bunch of useless distractor objects. The puzzle box was installed 15 minutes later. The birds successfully selected the tool and used it to open the box 86 percent of the time, excluding one particularly resourceful female who figured out a way to open the box all by herself, with no tool.