Ravens Cooperate Only With Friends To Complete Tricky Tasks

Ravens have long had the reputation of being cunning but witty. Now it has been found that ravens can solve problems that call for cooperation - which just some "super-intelligent" birds can give, according to natureworldnews.

In a recent study published in the journal Scientific Reports, it is seen that ravens can handle the cooperative tasks that just "chimpanzees, elephants, and dolphins" can finish. However, there is a catch here.

"From the wild, it was already known that ravens are able to cooperate when, for example, mobbing predators. But using an experimental set-up working with captive ravens now allowed us to investigate, how exactly they do so," lead-author Jorg Massen, from the University of Vienna, Austria, explained in a statement.

In an experiment, scientists hung a platform from the enclosure of the ravens, with two pieces of cheese attached to it. "One rope was fed through two loops on the platform in such a way that it would take two ravens (one bird at each rope end) pulling in tandem to bring the cheese into reach. If one raven attempted to pull the rope alone, the platform would fall away -- a shameful waste of cheese," according to natureworldnews.

While the raven pairs managed to learn how they could solve the problem, and then cooperated to finish the task, they were more efficient at tackling the task when they were paired with friends.

Sometimes, it was found that one raven could cheat his ally and snap up both pieces of cheese. But in the pending trials, the victims could remember their enemy and "sabotage" the cooperative tasks if they were paired with cheaters.

"Such a sophisticated way of keeping your partner in check has previously only been shown in humans and chimpanzees," Massen added. "[It's] a complete novelty among birds."