“A lone raven clamors loudly near a remote cabin, alerting a man next to it to look up and see a hidden cougar that is about to spring on him.” Fact or Fiction? Well, in Scientific American, April 2007, researchers are starting to figure out that this may be more fact than fiction. When researchers set out to analyze the brain power of these birds, they were quite shocked to find that these odd stories of ravens exemplifying intelligent behavior was more than just outlandish fiction.

First, researchers needed to weed out any possibilities of the intelligent behavior being instinct or rote memory from prior experience, so what they did was present the raven with scenarios that would not exist in nature to weed out any possibility. In a controlled aviary they tied a piece of food to a string, and then tied the string to a perch. The only way for the birds to access the food was to land on the perch and pull up the string with their mouth, then step on the string to release the string with their mouth and repeat the process. This shortens the string, bringing the food closer and closer until the raven could access it.

When ravens of different ages were presented the test, they found some went about it in different ways, but some of the older birds landed on the perch, assessed the problem for a couple of minutes, then performed the action of pulling up the string within 30 secs. These ravens did no trial and error, no extraneous effort. Since this situation would not naturally happen within the wild and therefore could not have learned this behavior through past efforts of trial and error, the only reasonable explanation is that these ravens were able to visualize the possibilities, choosing the one best action.




Now, maturation was needed for this type of problem solving. Most young birds (month or two) went through the normal trial and error efforts like flying at the food, pecking the string and other efforts with no avail. Year old birds did seem to possess the ability to complete the complex problem solving, but their efforts just weren’t as efficient as the mature older birds and some trial and error was needed.

The second test was to see if the birds were really using logic to visualize the effort of creating a certain outcome, so what the researches did was create a non-logical scenario to make certain it was logic and not just trial and error. The setup for the second test presented a different kind of challenge. This time they laid this same string with food over a rod above the perch to force the illogical action of pulling the string down to have the food come up (similar to a pulley action).

The outcome to this test proved that the ravens were in fact using logic and not trial and error. Since this second problem did not follow logic, the birds could not “visualize” the logical progression of bringing the food to them. They pecked at the string, yanking it a few times, but soon lost interest and gave up. None of the ravens could solve the problem, even thought it needed the same pull on string, then step on string, repeat action behavior. The reason the first test was achieved by the birds was the simple fact that the problem was supported by logic, the second was not (pulling down for something to come up).

The conclusion of the research was that the success of the ravens “intelligence” was that they could visualize or “test actions in their mind and project the outcomes of those actions.” So, the next time you are having lunch outside, and as a bird comes a little to close, you say, “stupid birds!”, you may want to rethink your statement. The bird might be thinking, “stupid humans!”