As I was browsing the
internet this past week I was intrigued by a film that looked at the behavior
and the intelligence levels of Crows.
Because of the Corvid family's intelligence Hugnin teaches audiences that..."even a bird can recycle"
The film focused on a
study being conducted at the University of Washington where John Marzluff and
his team have been studying the Crows’ abilities to facially recognize humans.
John Marzluff and his team
in Seattle have been conducting some very interesting studies on the Crows in
the Seattle area. In the past
Marzulff has estabished that the Crows that had been tagged at the University
have not forgotten their experience.
He is reminded of this when he puts on the mask that he wore when the
Crows were tagged. At first the
Crows that were tagged would harass him when he walked by with the mask on, but
he noticed that over time not only did the original birds remember, but that
individuals also spread the word to other birds.
This left Marzluff with
some interesting questions about what we truly know about
Crows. To prove (or disprove) his
theory he designed a study to put the Crows’ facial recognition and cultural
transmission skills through a simple experiment. What he planned on doing was seeing if Crows were able to
pass on information from not just one adult Crow to another, but from one
generation to the next. This ability
has only been found in primates and humans. Marzluff did this by banding adult breeding pairs in 5
different locations. While the Crows were being banded the team wore a mask so
the bird would recognize them as a threat.
As the baby Crows
developed the team would walk through the area with the assigned mask. What they were hoping to accomplish by
doing this was to have the babies see and remember what their parents did when
the masked man was around.
John Marzluff and one of the Crows he has been studying
As the study progressed the babies were banded, and tracking
monitors were attached by Marzluff and his team without
the mask on, so Marzluff and his team could observe the development of the
young Crows. Marzulff had a total of 8 young Crows in the study and by November
of the Crows’ hatch year only one had survived. Marzluff was able to locate
this Crow and could run the last test in the study.
Marzluff first walked by
the crow to record a normal reaction to an unmasked human, and the bird
responded by doing almost nothing to acknowledge his presence. However, when Marzluff put on the mask
the reaction was much different. The Crow took very much interest in Marzluff
with the mask on, and after a few minutes the Crow became so upset that it let
out an alarm call.
Marzluff was successful in
showing that Crows are capable of passing on vital information from one
generation to the next. This means
they are able to change and adapt to their environment.
Because of the Corvid family's intelligence, Hugnin, a White Naped Raven has learned to accept donations
When you think about it
are we so different from Crows?
Crows and humans are social, adaptive, intelligent, opportunistic, and
omnivores. The building blocks of higher intelligence are not exclusive to just
humans; other organisms have also had success by using their head.
When visiting the World
Bird Sanctuary be sure to take a walk down the display line where several
corvids (the family that includes Crows and Ravens) are housed.
Submitted by Adam
Triska, World Bird Sanctuary Field Studies Coordinator
