Ravens have social abilities previously only seen in humans

[xchrom]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/10/ravens-have-social-abilities-previously-only-seen-in-humans/




Humans and their primate cousins are well known for their intelligence and social abilities. You hear them called bird-brained, but birds have demonstrated a great deal of intelligence in many tasks.

However, little is known about their social skills. A new study shows that ravens are socially savvier than we give them credit for. They are able to work out the social dynamics of other raven groups, something which only humans had shown the ability to do.

Bullying in the community

Jorg Massen and his colleagues of the University of Vienna wanted to find out more about about bird’s social skills, so they studied ravens, which live in social groups. In their study, published in Nature Communications, they looked at whether ravens were intelligent enough to understand relationships in their own social groups, as well as if they could figure out social groups that they had never been a part of.

Ravens within a community squabble over their ranking in the group, as higher ranked ravens have better access to food and other resources. Males always outrank females and confrontations mostly occur between members of the same sex.

[mopinko]

1. i'm learning about crows. our were wiped out in 2002

i live in a former west nile hot spot. we lost all our crows and jays.
i have a pair that is trying to gather a murder on my block. i read that they need at least 4 helpers to nest, and they only lay once a year.
they have on other than is around sometimes. i call to them, and toss them tidbits sometimes.
dont want to bribe them, just entice them a little.
they are starting to look for me, and recognize me.

i am a rock star to all the little kids.

[hunter]

2. We've got a pair in our neighborhood.

I'm pretty sure they've got a youngster stashed away somewhere but they know when I'm watching them and won't lead me to their nest. They are pretty sharp, opening trash cans and so on. At the moment they are savagely raiding the nests of smaller birds, eating both eggs and babies.

They are curious about our dogs, and our dogs are curious about them.

I once saw a raven couple at the Grand Canyon teaching their kid how to get handouts from the tourists in spite of all the signs saying "Don't feed the Animals." A horrible diet, no doubt, but plentiful. The raven family was putting on quite a show, dancing and making human sounds for their dinner.