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Author Heinrich, B.; Bugnyar, T.
Title Just how smart are ravens? Type Journal Article
Year 2007 Publication Scientific American Abbreviated Journal Sci Am
Volume 296 Issue 4 Pages 64-71
Keywords Animals; *Behavior, Animal; Crows/*physiology; Environment; *Intelligence; Predatory Behavior; Problem Solving; Thinking
Abstract
Address University of Vermont, USA
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Language English Summary Language Original Title
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Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN (up) 0036-8733 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:17479632 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4101
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Author Range, F.; Bugnyar, T.; Schlogl, C.; Kotrschal, K.
Title Individual and sex differences in learning abilities of ravens Type Journal Article
Year 2006 Publication Behavioural Processes Abbreviated Journal Behav. Process.
Volume 73 Issue 1 Pages 100-106
Keywords Animals; Behavior, Animal/*physiology; *Crows; Discrimination Learning/*physiology; Exploratory Behavior/physiology; Female; *Individuality; Male; Sex Factors; Spatial Behavior
Abstract Behavioral and physiological characteristics of individuals within the same species have been found to be stable across time and contexts. In this study, we investigated individual differences in learning abilities and object and social manipulation to test for consistency within individuals across different tasks. Individual ravens (Corvus corax) were tested in simple color and position discrimination tasks to establish their learning abilities. We found that males were significantly better in the acquisition of the first discrimination task and the object manipulation task, but not in any of the other tasks. Furthermore, faster learners engaged less often in manipulations of conspecifics and exploration of objects to get access to food. No relationship between object and social manipulation and reversal training were found. Our results suggest that individual differences in regard to the acquisition of new tasks may be related to personalities or at least object manipulation in ravens.
Address Konrad Lorenz Research Station, A-4645 Gruenau 11, Austria. friederike.range@univie.ac.at
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Language English Summary Language Original Title
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Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN (up) 0376-6357 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:16675158 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 4146
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Author Schmidt, J.; Scheid, C.; Kotrschal, K.; Bugnyar, T.; Schloegl, C.
Title Gaze direction – A cue for hidden food in rooks (Corvus frugilegus)? Type Journal Article
Year 2011 Publication Behavioural Processes Abbreviated Journal
Volume 88 Issue 2 Pages 88-93
Keywords Gaze; Object choice; Corvids; Effort; Rooks
Abstract Other individual's head- and eye-directions can be used as social cues indicating the presence of important events. Among birds, ravens and rooks have been shown to co-orient with conspecifics and with humans by following their gaze direction into distant space and behind visual screens. Both species use screens to cache food in private; also, it had been suggested that they may rely on gaze cues to detect hidden food. However, in an object-choice task, ravens failed to do so, and their competitive lifestyle may have prevented them from relying on these cues. Here we tested closely related and cooperative rooks. Food was hidden in one of two cups and the experimenter gazed at the baited cup. In a second experiment, we aimed to increase the birds’ motivation to choose correctly by increasing the investment needed to obtain the reward. To do so, the birds had to pull on a string to obtain the cup. Here, the birds as a group tended to rely on gaze cues. In addition, individual birds quickly learned to use the cue in both experiments. Although rooks may not use gaze cues to find hidden food spontaneously, they may quickly learn to do so.
Address
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Publisher Place of Publication Editor
Language Summary Language Original Title
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ISSN (up) 0376-6357 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 5420
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Author Bugnyar, T.; Heinrich, B.
Title Pilfering ravens, Corvus corax, adjust their behaviour to social context and identity of competitors Type Journal Article
Year 2006 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 9 Issue 4 Pages 369-376
Keywords Adaptation, Psychological; Animals; *Behavior, Animal; *Competitive Behavior; Crows/*physiology; *Deception; Feeding Behavior; Female; Male; Social Behavior; *Social Environment
Abstract Like other corvids, food-storing ravens protect their caches from being pilfered by conspecifics by means of aggression and by re-caching. In the wild and in captivity, potential pilferers rarely approach caches until the storers have left the cache vicinity. When storers are experimentally prevented from leaving, pilferers first search at places other than the cache sites. These behaviours raise the possibility that ravens are capable of withholding intentions and providing false information to avoid provoking the storers' aggression for cache protection. Alternatively, birds may refrain from pilfering to avoid conflicts with dominants. Here we examined whether ravens adjust their pilfer tactics according to social context and type of competitors. We allowed birds that had witnessed a conspecific making caches to pilfer those caches either in private, together with the storer, or together with a conspecific bystander that had not created the caches (non-storer) but had seen them being made. Compared to in-private trials, ravens delayed approaching the caches only in the presence of storers. Furthermore, they quickly engaged in searching away from the caches when together with dominant storers but directly approached the caches when together with dominant non-storers. These findings demonstrate that ravens selectively alter their pilfer behaviour with those individuals that are likely to defend the caches (storers) and support the interpretation that they are deceptively manipulating the others' behaviour.
Address Department of Biology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA. thomas.bugnyar@univie.ac.at
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Language English Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
Series Volume Series Issue Edition
ISSN (up) 1435-9448 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes PMID:16909235 Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Serial 2449
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Author Bílá, K.; Beránková, J.; Veselý, P.; Bugnyar, T.; Schwab, C.
Title Responses of urban crows to con- and hetero-specific alarm calls in predator and non-predator zoo enclosures Type Journal Article
Year 2017 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 20 Issue 1 Pages 43-51
Keywords
Abstract Urban animals and birds in particular are able to cope with diverse novel threats in a city environment such as avoiding novel, unfamiliar predators. Predator avoidance often includes alarm signals that can be used also by hetero-specifics, which is mainly the case in mixed-species flocks. It can also occur when species do not form flocks but co-occur together. In this study we tested whether urban crows use alarm calls of conspecifics and hetero-specifics (jackdaws, Corvus monedula) differently in a predator and a non-predator context with partly novel and unfamiliar zoo animal species. Birds were tested at the Tiergarten Schönbrunn in the city of Vienna by playing back con- and hetero-specific alarm calls and control stimuli (great tit song and no stimuli) at predator (wolf, polar bear) and non-predator (eland antelope and cranes, peccaries) enclosures. We recorded responses of crows as the percentage of birds flying away after hearing the playback (out of those present before the playback) and as the number of vocalizations given by the present birds. A significantly higher percentage of crows flew away after hearing either con- or hetero-specific alarm calls, but it did not significantly differ between the predator and the non-predator context. Crows treated jackdaw calls just as crow calls, indicating that they make proper use of hetero-specific alarm calls. Responding similarly in both contexts may suggest that the crows were uncertain about the threat a particular zoo animal represents and were generally cautious. In the predator context, however, a high percentage of crows also flew away upon hearing the great tit control song which suggests that they may still evaluate those species which occasionally killed crows as more dangerous and respond to any conspicuous sound.
Address
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Language Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
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ISSN (up) 1435-9456 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Bílá2017 Serial 6159
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Author Griffin, A.S.; Tebbich, S.; Bugnyar, T.
Title Animal cognition in a human-dominated world Type Journal Article
Year 2017 Publication Animal Cognition Abbreviated Journal Anim. Cogn.
Volume 20 Issue 1 Pages 1-6
Keywords
Abstract In the USA, each year, up to one billion birds are estimated to die from colliding with windowpanes (Sabo et al. 2016). A further 573,000 are struck down by wind turbines, along with 888,000 bats (Smallwood 2013). Worldwide, unintended capture in fishing devices is recognized as the single most serious global threat to migratory, long-lived marine taxa including turtles, birds, mammals and sharks (Wallace et al. 2013). Estimates put the number of amphibians killed per year on Australian roads at 5 million (Seiler 2003). The likelihood of a green turtle erroneously ingesting plastic debris, often by mistaking them for food, rose from 30% in 1985 to almost 50% in 2012 (Schuyler et al. 2013). Human-induced rapid environmental change (HIREC, sensu Sih et al. 2011) is filling animals’ environments with new threats which bear little or excessive similarity to those they have encountered in their evolutionary history (Dwernychuk and Boag 1972; Patten and Kelley 2010; Witherington 1997). As a consequence, many of the stimuli involved fall outside the adaptive processing space of animals’ evolutionary perceptual, learning, memory and decision-making systems, making individuals particularly vulnerable to their impact.
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Language Summary Language Original Title
Series Editor Series Title Abbreviated Series Title
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ISSN (up) 1435-9456 ISBN Medium
Area Expedition Conference
Notes Approved no
Call Number Equine Behaviour @ team @ Griffin2017 Serial 6129
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