Do most animals have that ability though? How do you learn from something when you're dead from it nearly instantly? I don't think snakes have knowledge outside of instinct. That's the point of this crow article.
They’re not learning, but they are evolving to cope.
Suppose there's one snake that is genetically disposed not to eat toad-shaped things, frogs, cane toads, anything like that, the same way I don't like nuts. They're not toxic to me, I could eat them, but I don't. Previously toads weren't toxic to snakes, but that snake didn't eat them.
Normally that snake has a small disadvantage, other snakes eat toads and it goes without. Too bad. But now it won't get poisoned. This means it's slightly more likely to survive to adulthood, breed and produce more snakes.
Further genetic changes to avoid toads will also be selected for in the same fashion.
This process is very slow in multi-cellular creatures, but it does exist. It may not be fast enough to adapt to the cane toad of course.
Regardless, it always makes me wonder how much the anti-evolution "movement" would be affected if people simply had a better grasp of it.
The actual values of these variables (and a few more I'm sure) can change whether one population dies out or not and how quickly. Just because evolution provides a solution to the general problem, doesn't mean there's a solution that saves the population when the specific problem is looked at in detail. Invasive species cause local extinctions all the time.
You get a addictive behaviour and slowly immunize yourself with microdoses of poison.
You hunt your prey in a poison diluting or neutralizing environment.
You set the plains on fire with dryd grass to interrupt the feeding cycle of the plague and eat the denatured poisonous creatures.
There are a lot of different strategies. One must admire the crows for eating the fugu though.
There are sources for addiction regarding animals on the web. Its quite interesting what horses and goats do for some weeds.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River_toad#Drug_use_o...
The war on Horse-Drugs should have priority. Give the DEAs some hoes to whack out the danger.
Sentience is the ability for subjective experience, which applies to any of the animals being discussed here. If you're thinking of something like self-awareness (a totally separate quality), you're probably correct. But that has nothing to do with the ability to learn.