Dr. Jorg Massen of the University of Vienna and his team of researchers ran a behavioral study on 300 ravens in the Austrian Alps. Studying the birds, a hierarchy became apparent, and subsequently a need to protect coalitions with hierarchy. In other words, ravens actively engage in socio-strategic practices.
The published study, which can be found at Current Biology, observed that a hierarchy existed with established breeding pairs and related groups. Whereas, as the study noted, “At the bottom of the hierarchy we find those individuals with no specific bonds (nonbonded).” Subsequently, trouble brews when the nonbonded birds try to build themselves a hierarchy.
The revelatory observation from this study was that ravens in a hierarchical coalition will often intervene in the potential creation of other coalitions. Michelle Douglass for BBC-Earth may have said it best when she described the ravens as “social-climbing corvids”. Basically, these feathered creatures actively engage in politics.
The interventions of higher-ranking ravens to break up potential new coalitions shows that ravens can actually recognize the social status of other ravens. While biologists have known about the intelligence capabilities of ravens for years, the results and observations of Dr. Massen’s studies show that the advanced politics, once thought to be limited to humans, are a regular part of a raven’s life. As to whether the interventions worked, just over half (52.8%) of interventions were successful. Studies about the risks and rewards of intervention have yet to be instigated, but Dr. Massen’s research has opened up a whole new field of study for these notorious birds.
