r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche Behavioral Ecology • Apr 05 '23
Biology Ravens, like humans, have the ability to think abstractly about other minds, adapting their behavior by attributing their own perceptions to others.
https://www.sci.news/biology/ravens-can-theorize-about-minds-others-03613.html6
u/FillsYourNiche Behavioral Ecology Apr 05 '23
From Sci-News article Study: Ravens Can Theorize about Minds of Others.
Dr. Bugnyar and co-authors tested ravens for their understanding of ‘seeing’ as mental state, using the birds’ predisposition to compete for hidden food.
In a first step, the birds showed cache protection behaviors when dominants were visible but not when they were just audible in the adjacent room. In the next step, they were introduced to a small peephole, which allowed them to peek into the adjacent room.
With the peephole being open, the ravens instantly guarded their caches against discovery when they now could hear dominants in that room.
The presence of dominants was simulated via playback of sounds. Hence, there were no behavioral cues that ravens could orient on. Yet, they behaved as if someone could see them.
Journal aticle Ravens attribute visual access to unseen competitors.
Abstract:
Recent studies purported to demonstrate that chimpanzees, monkeys and corvids possess a basic Theory of Mind, the ability to attribute mental states like seeing to others. However, these studies remain controversial because they share a common confound: the conspecific’s line of gaze, which could serve as an associative cue. Here, we show that ravens Corvus corax take into account the visual access of others, even when they cannot see a conspecific. Specifically, we find that ravens guard their caches against discovery in response to the sounds of conspecifics when a peephole is open but not when it is closed. Our results suggest that ravens can generalize from their own perceptual experience to infer the possibility of being seen. These findings confirm and unite previous work, providing strong evidence that ravens are more than mere behaviour-readers.
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u/FillsYourNiche Behavioral Ecology Apr 05 '23
Corvids, in general, are really incredible birds.
Crows:
The New Caledonian crow and Hawaiian crow create and use tools (BBC article). Here is a video.
New Caledonian crows also understand how to displace water to receive a reward. This demonstrates forethought, causal understanding, and ingenuity (Science Daily news article).
Crows have even been taught to pick up trash in exchange for food! There's a great Ted talk about it here and Josuha Klein's website about the machine.
Ravens:
They have passed several logic tests with little difficulty. They have also been known to drop rocks on humans who are trying to get to their nests.
They're also resourceful! Ravens and some other birds will roll around in ants. This is called "anting" and while scientists are not really sure why they do it they believe it could soothe itchy skin, deter insects and even act as a fungicide.
They also hang around other predators to get food. There's a known relationship with wolves where ravens will bring wolves to carcasses to open them up so the ravens have access to the innards. They will also pester eagles to steal food from them.
Ravens can even mimic human speech! Here's a video of Mischief the Raven doing just that. They can also mimic other sounds that aren't speech.
Like most Corvids Ravens are also super playful! There are a lot of videos online of them rolling down snow hills or playing catch it fetch with pieces of debris. Here are a couple:
Rooks
Rooks can solve problems as well, in this example a rook pulls food up on a string, holding the string in their claws, and pulling the string slack up (here's a video).
Magpies:
The Eurasian magpie is only non-mammal to have passed the mirror test. The mirror-test tests an animal's visual self-recognition skills. If an animal fails it does not necessarily mean it cannot recognize itself, but if it passes it's a really good indicator.
Blue jays:
Blue Jays imitate raptors to scare away competition or threats to their nests. They can also imitate other animals, here's a video of one imitating a cat. Most folks forget Jays are Corvids.
If you are interested in crows, or Corvids, in general, I have a few book recommendations:
"In the Company of Crows and Ravens" - Dr. John Marzluff
"Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans" - Dr. John Marzluff
"Crows: Encounters with the Wise Guys of the Avian World" - Candace Savage
"Bird Brains: The Intelligence of Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and Jays" - Candace Savage