Corvids , the family of birds that include crows and ravens , are canny beasts . They ’ve been sleep with to exerciseself - control , calculate , arrest grudge , and more . Now , new enquiry suggests they have at least a rudimentary hypothesis of Mind — the ability to impute mental states to others .
A study inNaturefinds thatravenscan order when someone else can see them , guarding their food when a eyehole to their stash is open . While former research suggested that boo might have an cognizance of other brute ' mental states , the result havebeen inconclusive . TheNaturestudy is grounds that corvids can do more than just cut across other birds ' gaze ; they may understand the concept of " seeing . "
Vienna - found researchers set up two rooms distinguish by windows that could be close with cover . These covers had peepholes in them that could also be opened or closed . First , the 10 ravens were each allowed to cache solid food , while other birds were in the next way and the window were open or closed . Then , they were trained to look through the peepholes to observe food in the other way , so that they know that the gob could be used to see through the window covers . Afterwards , each of the raven was again present with food with one of the two peepholes open . The adjacent observation room did n’t have any razzing in it , but the researchers played the sounds of another raven read during one of the previous trial .
When the birds get word the sounds of another raven in the next elbow room , and the peephole was open , the raspberry behaved as if they live they were being follow — they hide their cache of food for thought quickly and did n’t add together more food for thought to it as often , as if they knew that it might be compromise . However , they do commonly when the peephole was close down .
This suggests that ravens do n’t just track their competitors ' regard to bang when they ’re being watched , but can infer from retiring experience when they can be go through .
