Ravens show things to partners, a rare ability, study finds

[Staff]

Ravens show things to partners, a rare ability, study finds
Nov. 29, 2011
Courtesy of Max-Planck-Gesellschaft and World Science staff

Ravens show things to partners, a rare ability, study finds
excerpt from above:

Wild rav­ens pur­pose­fully show ob­jects to their mat­ing part­ner­s—the first time this be­hav­ior has been ob­served in the wild ex­cept in the clos­est rel­a­tives of hu­mans, sci­en­tists re­port.

The re­search­ers con­sid­er these ac­tions as part of a class of be­hav­iors called deic­tic ges­tures, which in­clude...

[dapjwy]

Interesting. I've always found studies on animal intelligence fascinating.

...though some chimps have been seen us­ing “di­rected scratch­es” to in­di­cate spots on their bod­ies that they want a part­ner to groom...

I have to admit that I've done that myself in the dark when I need my back scratched at a certain spot. (I can't very well just say "higher" or "lower".)