Grrlscientist at Living the Scientific Life has lovely, detailed description of Bernd Henrich’s article about the intelligence of ravens in Scientific American.
Some of you know that Bernd Heinrich has spent many winters studying ravens and their behavior. This month, Heinrich and his colleague, Thomas Bugnyar, published an article in Scientific American that explores the intelligence of ravens. In this article, they investigate the question; do the birds consciously contemplate alternative behaviors and choose the most appropriate ones, or are they merely relying on instinct or learning to perform specific actions by rote?
The natives of the Yukon thought that the Raven was pretty smart:
The raven is called Crow by Yukon First Nations people and is the subject of many stories passed from generation to generation. One of the most familiar stories is about how Crow brought the sun, the moon and daylight to the world. Crow turned himself into a pine needle and was swallowed in a cup of water by the daughter of the big man who owned all the sources of light.
Other books by Bernd Heinrich include
2007 April 18, Wednesday, 13:18 at
thanks for noticing and linking to my summary of the raven story!
GrrlScientist
2008 July 22, Tuesday, 12:18 at
I’ve also collected some links on the topic in my blog:
http://workingaboard.wordpress.com/2007/12/16/the-intelligence-of-birds/