RAVENS use "HAND" GESTURES to COMMUNICATE
If I asked you what a wing was for, chances are you would tell me it helped birds fly. Would you ever think that a wing, which has the same basic anatomical bone structure of the hand that any animal with an actual hand has, could use its wing to make gestures, as well? A recent study has shown that ravens use their beaks and wings similar to the way humans use their hands, and can perform gestures such as pointing to objects. Until now, this behavior has not been seen by scientists in anything other than primates. Although dogs have been observed to point to things, they were excluded as a possibility, since they are taught this action by humans. Even when considering primates, gestures comparable to those of humans are rarely seen. One instance where such a gesture has been seen is in Uganda, where chimpanzees use directed scratches to point out parts of their body they would like groomed.
With more and more research, ravens have been found to be extremely intelligent creatures, out-competing with apes in some cases. Biologists have found them to be a very object- oriented species.
Research involving ravens has shown that they use their beaks to motion to and offer items, like moss, stones and twigs, which often leads the gestured to look at the object. Those gestured are commonly members of the opposite sex. The two would then interact directly, maybe by clasping their bills together or jointly manipulating the item. This has suggested that these gestures are used to measure interest of a partner or to reinforce bond strength. This has completely blown the expectation of what a "gesturer" should look like, considering that the raven has wings instead of hands, a beak and is able to fly, yet can still take advantage of nonvocal communication in this way.
It is a fact that ravens possess a high level of cooperation between partners, which suggests that gestures evolve in species that demonstrate a high degree of collaborative abilities. This discovery could open new possibilities on the origin of gestures within humans. One thing is certain, further research must be done on the other various gestures of ravens in order to make connections between function and meaning that could shed light on our own species' development.
http://www.livescience.com/17213-ravens-gestures-animal-communication.html
Posted by Chelsea Van Thof (9).
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ReplyDeleteI think many people take birds' cognitive levels for granted. I think it is amazing that ravens can point too, being compared to the intelligence of apes is quite a feat in the animal world. I read something a while ago about crows even being able to recognize the faces of humans and remember them. I am starting to think the term "bird-brain" needs to be reevaluated.
ReplyDeletePosted by Jacob Lafauce
Using a homologous structure for an action performed with the same structure by other species of animals? I doubt that's a coincidence. I feel for some reason I had heard that raven's were smarter than the average bird, or maybe I like to think that after reading Game of Thrones. In any case, pretty neat. I should like to see this guesturing done in person, or at least in a video clip. How flexible are a raven's wings? I wonder what the extent of its guesturing can be. Can they only point at things to the left or right of them? Or do they also point up and done? And do they use their beaks to point forward?
ReplyDeletePosted by Austin Gray
Nice to see a post about Ravens, it has surfaced more and more lately that they are smarter than we could have imagined. I would love to see some clips of them using their wings as sort of hands! This shows that maybe the homologous structures that we talked about in class may have some similar purposes, too bad we cannot also fly.
ReplyDeletePosted by Caitlin Descovich O'Hare
In reply to Austin Gray:
ReplyDeleteWhile reading the questions at the end of your comment, all I could think about was an ACME cartoon of a crow from when we were little, using its wings exactly as humans do. Whether the crow is pointing this way and that, pulling its feathers up to reveal a hand underneath, or flying in the air without even moving its wings. It made me laugh :P
I tried to locate a video of ravens making these gestures, but I couldn't find any. The picture above is of a male showcasing the object in its beak to two of its kin. The picture I list below is another example of this.
http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/111129-Ravens1Photo-hmed-1005a.grid-6x2.jpg
I think that right now the research has seen much more gesturing to do with crows' beaks than wings. I'm not sure if it's really about the acuteness of the gesture, either, just more so that the behavior is directed towards another crow, at all.
Pointing left and right with their wings is a curious topic. The flexibility and orientation of the wing's motions would lead me to think that to orient their wing in a direction they wanted to point in, crows would have to simply spread their wing out and let a turn of their body point it in the right direction. I am not sure if they could actually move their wing in a direction to the right or left of them, by itself.
I have not read Game of Thrones, but I will assume they put ravens on a pedestal.
Posted By Chelsea Van Thof.
Wow I never thought I'd ever here about a bird giving a high five. I've previously posted an article comparing vocal and non vocal communication. I found that in animals such as primates with less developed vocal boxes are more likely to communicate in gestures while birds which have highly developed syrinxes are likely to use vocal communications. I wonder if the crow has an undeveloped syrinx or what else is the reason for it to rely on non verbal communication.
ReplyDeletePosted by Nick Gast
I wonder if the brains of ravens are more complex than those of other species of birds. Since they are the only species of bird that seem to exhibit this form of communication, perhaps there's a reason as to why it evolved in this particular species? Like Nick said, perhaps their vocal communication was lacking, so they evolved a different method. I wonder of these birds rely more on vocal(if at all) or gestures more when communicating? I believe if researchers conducted research on comparing the brains of ravens against other species, perhaps some of these questions could be answered.
ReplyDeletePosted by Sara Corey
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ReplyDeleteI find it very interesting that ravens use gestures with wings to communicate, as I thought a majority of communication would be done by vocalization. I've always known birds were intelligent, but I always thought they be below primates, and even dolphins in terms of intelligence, not on par. great article.
ReplyDeletePosted by Andy Zou