16 October 2024
Did you know that ravens have paranoid, abstract thoughts about other minds?
A new(*) study has found that ravens are able to imagine being spied upon — a level of abstraction that was previously thought to be unique to humans.
— WIRED, 3 Feb 2016(*)
Ravens are well known to cache food but who owns the stash operates on the principle: “Unless another raven is actively guarding it, whatever food I see is mine.” The finder eats or re-hides the cache. We would call this thievery.
To prevent thieves, a raven with lots of food waits until all the other ravens leave before caching his treasure. He’ll even go to a place where no one can see him hiding it.
Scientists thought that a raven had to see another raven before he went to all this trouble. Then a study in 2016 tested whether ravens can imagine potential thieves they cannot see.
The study, published in Nature Communications, found that if a nearby peephole was open, ravens guarded pockets of food against discovery in response to the sound of other birds — even if they didn’t see another bird. This was not replicated when the peephole was closed, despite hearing the same auditory clues.
Ravens are so smart that they can imagine thieves, just like we can. Is it a blessing or a curse to be this intelligent?
Watch how ravens imagine what another raven is thinking in this video from BBC Earth.
Another reason to love ravens. Abstract thought.
I watched the pair at Crooked Creek’s Control Tower where their nest was for a few years, they had 2 fledglings who were fun to watch also as they tested their wings on the side of the fence, they actually made me feel as if they were almost human…I watched them preen each other and court, felt them to be smart…first time I saw 1/HIM he was perched on an orange cement block, he enlarged his neck/throat feathers and a little of his head while I sat in my car taking his picture and watching,,he also sort of whistled which I hadn’t heard before. I watched them both court, preen, and felt strange watching them copulate on the tower…still have photos, even of their nest in the framework underneath