The brain of the common raven is among the largest of any bird species. Specifically, their hyperpallium is large for a bird. They display ability in problem-solving, as well as other cognitive processes such as imitation and insight.
Linguist Derek Bickerton, building on the work of biologist Bernd Heinrich, has argued that ravens are one of only four known animals (the others being bees, ants, and humans) who have demonstrated displacement, the capacity to communicate about objects or events that are distant in space or time. Subadult ravens roost together at night, but usually forage alone during the day. However, when one discovers a large carcass guarded by a pair of adult ravens, the unmated raven will return to the roost and communicate the find. The following day, a flock of unmated ravens will fly to the carcass and chase off the adults. Bickerton argues that the advent of linguistic displacement was perhaps the most important event in the evolution of human language, and that ravens are the only other vertebrate to share this with humans.
One experiment designed to evaluate insight and problem-solving ability involved a piece of meat attached to a string hanging from a perch. To reach the food, the bird needed to stand on the perch, pull the string up a little at a time, and step on the loops to gradually shorten the string. Four of five common ravens eventually succeeded, and “the transition from no success (ignoring the food or merely yanking at the string) to constant reliable access (pulling up the meat) occurred with no demonstrable trial-and-error learning.” This supports the hypothesis that common ravens are ‘inventors’, implying that they can solve problems. Many of the feats of common ravens were formerly argued to be stereotyped innate behavior, but it now has been established that their aptitudes for solving problems individually and learning from each other reflect a flexible capacity for intelligent insight unusual among non-human animals. Another experiment showed that some common ravens could intentionally deceive their conspecifics.
A study published in 2011 found that ravens can recognize when they are given an unfair trade during reciprocal interactions with conspecifics or humans, retaining memory of the interaction for a prolonged period of time. Birds that were given a fair trade by experimenters were found to prefer interacting with these experimenters compared to those that did not. Furthermore, ravens in the wild have also been observed to stop cooperating with other ravens if they observe them cheating during group tasks.
Common ravens have been observed calling wolves to the site of dead animals. The wolves open the carcass, leaving the scraps more accessible to the birds. They watch where other common ravens bury their food and remember the locations of each other’s food caches, so they can steal from them. This type of theft occurs so regularly that common ravens will fly extra distances from a food source to find better hiding places for food. They have also been observed pretending to make a cache without actually depositing the food, presumably to confuse onlookers.
Common ravens are known to steal and cache shiny objects such as pebbles, pieces of metal, and golf balls. One theory is that they hoard shiny objects to impress other ravens. Other research indicates that juveniles are deeply curious about all new things, and that common ravens retain an attraction to bright, round objects based on their similarity to bird eggs. Mature birds lose their intense interest in the unusual, and become highly neophobic.
The first large-scale assessment of ravens’ cognitive abilities suggests that, by four months of age, ravens do about as well as adult chimps and orangutans on tests of causal reasoning, social learning, theory of mind, etc.
Jack J
wow…hear that in the woods and tell me you wouldn’t crap yourself
Brian L
I was hiking in Bryce Canyon, pretty sure it was the Peekaboo Loop, in February 2021. A single raven was hanging around the parking lot, so I threw it a piece of my turkey sandwich before we hiked down into the canyon. Well, it followed us on foot for at least 90 minutes, which we got a kick outta. Eventually, I looked back and it was gone. When we got back to our car, like 6 hours later, it was waiting at the curb right in front of our car. Pretty cool creatures.
Charles R
Very cool strory Brian L. There was a reason Edgar Allen Poe used the raven, instead of a Baltimore Oriole in his famous poem “The Raven” so long ago, and why the new football team that moved from Cleveland took the name The Baltimore Ravens.
Ron S
I believe all birds have a very spiritual significance (everything does actually) that only few of us could even begin to get a grasp of.
I feel the statement about the ravens attraction to shining round objects being because of a similarity to eggs seems like a bit of a “boxed in” statement. Can you really tell me what animals see, think and feel? No offense but Nah, I doubt it.
We might have to wake up or be more conscious to the reality that various animals and creatures see this world with eyes and optical sensors that differ from humans, with different spectrums of light and frame rates… Who really knows what they are seeing?
I bet the way all life views the world varies and it’s something much different than we are aware of all (or any of) the time. I believe we should pay more attention to all aspects of the natural world with respect and appreciation of what it can teach us beyond its obvious physical characteristics, habits and the name tag we slapped on it.
All the signs I’ve been seeing lately are pointing towards humanity needing to act more humbly and looking towards the positive natural energies we are capable of inside but maybe more importantly outside of our own selves for knowledge and guidance (knowledge within natural things that is).
Compared to nature, technology bytes the big 1. Nature doesn’t need to drastically need new upgrades in this lifetime because it’s already perfected, perfectly for right now… with more information that is truly pertinent for the future that we have barely ever touched on yet.
To me it seems obvious that the power within the natural world or the natural universe can undo or erase absolutely anything that could ever be created by man or twisted by evil, or even a combination of both. Try and wrap your rings around that thought for a minute.
If we are allowed to take anything with us beyond the end of this lifetime, I’m feeling like it will likely be something that is agreeable to the harmony and sensation within the appreciation of creation.
Not memories within conquests of sin, acquired stuff, secrets, personal monuments or the size of a chitcoin bankroll… Are you kidding me?!
kidding yourself?
Steven B
I think that Raven may be “Joe”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia4OIK323GA
avila
When I was a child, my dad had a raven as a pet. His name was Rascal.
Rascal could come and go as he wished. He could talk like a human,
when he would speak his voice sound just like my dad’s voice.
Smart kind bird he was.
Linda B
That is so cool! The other night when the contest was on to guess what animal the recording was, I thought there was something wrong with the video that I couldn’t hear an animal, only a man talking (Sunday night SC). Hehe. I sure didn’t know they could talk. I wonder why Noah didn’t use one instead of a dove, I figured the dove was faithful? A Raven could have provided a water recession report. Just kidding.
I wonder if squatches learn their words from raven’s (and people calling their dogs/spouses).