Scientists need to stop underestimating these brilliant corvids.
Ravens Surprise Scientists By Showing They Can Plan
As recently as 10 years ago, humans were thought to be the only species with the ability to plan.
Recent studies on great apes showed the ability is not uniquely human. Now, scientists in Sweden have come to the surprising conclusion that ravens can also deliberately prepare for future events.
“It is conservative to conclude that ravens perform similarly to great apes and young children,” the researchers write. However, monkeys have failed similar experiments.
We’ve known that ravens, and other members of the corvid family, are smart. Previously, they were shown to think ahead by caching food to eat later.
But some scientists argued that food caching was not proof of an ability to plan because the birds could simply be biologically wired to do so, cognitive zoologist Can Kabadayi from Lund University tells The Two-Way.
So, Kabadayi and co-author Mathias Osvath set up a series of experiments to see if five ravens could flexibly plan during tasks that they don’t do in the wild: using tools and bartering. These are similar to studies done on great apes. Their findings were published today in the journal Science.
A raven flies in the Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge in Wyoming. Tom Koerner/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
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