Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Leading a conspecific away from food in ravens (Corvus corax)?

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Animal Cognition Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Active misleading of conspecifics has been described as a social strategy mainly for primates. Here we report a raven leading a competitor away from food in a social foraging task. Four individuals had to search and compete for hidden food at color-marked clusters of artificial food caches. At the beginning of the experiment, a subordinate male found and exploited the majority of the food. As a result, the dominant male displaced him from the already opened boxes. The subordinate male then developed a pattern, when the loss of reward to the dominant got high, of moving to unrewarded clusters and opening boxes there. This diversion often led the dominant to approach those unrewarded clusters and the subordinate then had a head start for exploiting the rewarded boxes. Subsequently, however, the dominant male learned not to follow the subordinate to unrewarded clusters and eventually started searching for the reward himself. These interactions between the two males illustrate the ravens' potential for deceptively manipulating conspecifics. We discuss under which circumstances ravens might use this capacity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 4.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bernstein IS (1988) Metaphor, cognitive belief, and science. Behav Brain Sci 11:247–248

    Google Scholar 

  • Bugnyar T, Kotrschal K (2002) Observational learning and the raiding of food caches in ravens, Corvus corax: Is it "tactical" deception? Anim Behav 64:185–195

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Byrne RW, Whiten A (1985) Tactical deception of familiar individuals in baboons (Papio ursinus). Anim Behav 33:669–673

    Google Scholar 

  • Byrne RW, Whiten A (1990) Tactical deception in primates: the 1990 database. Primate Rep 27:1–101

    Google Scholar 

  • Byrne RW, Whiten A (1992) Cognitive evolution in primates: evidence from tactical deception. Man 27:609–627

    Google Scholar 

  • Call J, Tomasello M (1999) A nonverbal false belief task: the performance of children and great apes. Child Dev 70:381–395

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cheney DL, Seyfarth R (1990a) Attending to behavior versus attending to knowledge: examining monkeys' attribution of mental states. Anim Behav 40:742–753

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheney DL, Seyfarth R (1990b) How monkeys see the world: inside the mind of another species. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

  • Coussi-Korbel S (1994) Learning to outwit a competitor in mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus torquatus). J Comp Psychol 108:164–171

    Google Scholar 

  • Dawkins R, Krebs JR (1978) Animal signals: information or manipulation? In: Krebs JR, Davies NB (eds) Behavioral ecology: an evolutionary approach. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 282–309

  • Deaner R (2000) An experimental study of deception in ringtailed lemurs (abstract). Am J Phys Anthropol Suppl 30:135

    Google Scholar 

  • Dennett DC (1988) The intentional stance in theory and practise. In: Byrne RW, Whiten A (eds) Machiavellian intelligence: social expertise and the evolution of intellect in monkeys, apes and humans. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 180–202

  • de Waal FBM (1992) Intentional deception in primates. Evol Anthropol 1:86–92

    Google Scholar 

  • Fritz J, Kotrschal K (1999) Social learning in common ravens, Corvus corax. Anim Behav 57:785–793

    Google Scholar 

  • Fujita K, Kuroshima H, Masuda T (2002) Do tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) spontaneously deceive opponents? A preliminary analysis of an experimental food-competition contest between monkeys. Anim Cogn 5:19–25

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Galef BG Jr, Giraldeau L-A (2001) Social influences on foraging in vertebrates: causal mechanisms and adaptive functions. Anim Behav 61:3–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Giraldeau L-A, Caraco T (2000) Social foraging theory. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.

  • Goodall J (1986) The chimpanzees of Gombe. Patterns of behavior. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

  • Güzeldere G, Nahmias E, Deaner R (2002) Darwin's continuum and the building blocks of deception. In: Bekoff M, Allen C, Burghardt GM (eds) The cognitive animal. Empirical and theoretical perspectives on animal cognition. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., pp 353–362

  • Gwinner E (1965) Über den Einfluß des Hungers und andere Faktoren auf die Versteck-Aktivität des Kolkraben (Corvus corax). Vogelwarte 23:1–4

    Google Scholar 

  • Hare B, Call J, Agnetta B, Tomasello M (2000) Chimpanzees know what conspecifics do and do not see. Anim Behav 59:771–785

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hare B, Call J, Tomasello M (2001) Do chimpanzees know what conspecifics know? Anim Behav 61:139–151

    Google Scholar 

  • Hauser MD (1997) Minding the behaviour of deception. In: Whiten A, Byrnr RW (eds) Machiavellian intelligence II: extensions and evaluations. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 112–143

  • Hauser MD (2000) Wild minds. What animals really think. Penguin, London

  • Heinrich B (1999) Mind of the raven. HarperCollins, New York

  • Heinrich B, Pepper J (1998) Influence of competitors on caching behavior in common ravens, Corvus corax. Anim Behav 56:1083–1090

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Held S, Mendl M, Devereux C, Byrne RW (2000) Social tactics of pigs in a competitive foraging task: the "informed forager paradigm". Anim Behav 59:569–576

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Held S, Mendl M, Devereux C, Byrne RW (2002) Foraging pigs alter their behavior in response to exploitation. Anim Behav 64:157–166

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heyes CM (1993) Anecdotes, training, trapping and triangulating: do animals attribute mental states? Anim Behav 46:177–188

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heyes CM (1998) Theory of mind in nonhuman primates. Behav Brain Sci 21:101–148

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hirata S, Matsuzawa T (2001) Tactics to obtain a hidden food item in chimpanzee pairs (Pan troglodytes). Anim Cogn 4:285–295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Humphrey NK (1976) The social function of intellect. In: Bateson P, Hinde RA (eds) Growing points in ethology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 307–317

  • Kabicher G (1996) Das Versteckverhalten von handaufgezogenen juvenilen Kolkraben (Corvus corax). Master's thesis, KLF Grünau, University of Vienna

  • Krebs JR, Dawkins R (1984) Animal signals: mind-reading and manipulation. In: Krebs JR, Davies NB (eds) Behavioral ecology: an evolutionary approach, 2nd edn. Blackwell, Oxford, pp 380–402

  • Kummer H, Anzenberger G, Hemelrijk CK (1996) Hiding and perspective taking in long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis). J Comp Psychol 110:97–102

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Menzel EW Jr (1974) A group of young chimpanzees in a one-acre field: leadership and communication. In: Schrier AM, Stollnitz F (eds) Behavior of nonhuman primates, vol 5. Academic Press, San Diego, Calif., pp 83–153

  • Mitchell RW (1986) A framework for discussing deception. In: Mitchell RW, Thompson NS (eds) Deception: perspectives on human and non-human deceit. State University of New York Press, Albany, pp 3–10

  • Mitchell RW, Anderson JR (1997) Pointing, withholding information, and deception in capuchin monkeys. J Comp Psychol 114:351–361

    Google Scholar 

  • Munn C (1986) Birds that "cry wolf". Nature 319:143–145

    Google Scholar 

  • Povinelli DJ (1993) Reconstructing the evolution of mind. Am Psychol 48:493–509

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Povinelli DJ (2001) On the possibilities of detecting intentions prior to understanding them. In: Malle B, Baldwin D, Moses L (eds) Intentionality: a key to human understanding. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., pp 225–248

  • Povinelli DJ, Eddy TJ (1996) What young chimpanzees know about seeing. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev 61:3

    Google Scholar 

  • Povinelli DJ, Parks KA, Novak MA (1991) Do rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) attribute knowledge or ignorance to others? J Comp Psychol 105:318–325

    Google Scholar 

  • Premack D (1988) 'Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind?' revisited. In: Byrne RW, Whiten A (eds) Machiavellian intelligence: social expertise and the evolution of intellect in monkeys, apes and humans. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 160–179

  • Premack D, Woodruff G (1978) Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? Behav Brain Sci 1:515–526

    Google Scholar 

  • Ristau CA (1991) Aspects of the cognitive ethology of an injury-feigning bird, the piping plover. In: Ristau CA (ed) Cognitive ethology: the minds of other animals. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, N.J., pp 91–126

  • Schlittgen R, Streitberg BHJ (1995) Zeitreihenanalyse, 6th edn. Oldenbourg, Munich

  • Semple S, McComb K (1996) Behavioral deception. Trends Ecol Evol 11:434–437

    Google Scholar 

  • Tate DP (1994) Observations on the nesting behavior of the common potoo in Venezuela. J Field Ornithol 65:447–452

    Google Scholar 

  • Tomasello M, Call J (1997) Primate cognition. Oxford University Press, New York

  • Tomasello M, Hare B, Agnetta B (1999) Chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, follow gaze direction geometrically. Anim Behav 58:769–777

    Google Scholar 

  • Valone TJ (1989) Group foraging, public information, and patch estimation. Oikos 56:357–363

    Google Scholar 

  • Whiten A (1997) The Machiavellian mindreader. In: Whiten A, Byrne RW (eds) Machiavellian intelligence II: extensions and evaluations. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 144–173

  • Whiten A, Byrne RW (1988) Tactical deception in primates. Behav Brain Sci 11:233–273

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodruff G, Premack D (1979) Intentional communication in the chimpanzee: the development of deception. Cognition 7:333–362

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to G. Kabicher, N. Ortner, E. Bugnyar, and M. Haider for their help with the set-up and R. Byrne, J. Dittami, J. Fritz, B. Heinrich, C. Heyes, L. Huber, J. Lamprecht, and S. Sjoelander for valuable comments. The study was financially supported by FWF-project P12472-BIO and by a visiting fellowship of the K.L.I. Altenberg. At present, T. B. is supported by an Erwin Schroedinger fellowship J2064 of the Austrian Science Foundation. We thank H. Pechlaner and D. Schratter from the Vienna Zoological Garden for the donation of ravens, the Cumberland game park Grünau and the "Verein der Förderer" for permanent support, and H. Lindner, P. Winkler, G. Steinmaurer, and A. Buchegger for their cooperation. The experiment described here complies with the laws of Austria, where it was carried out.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Thomas Bugnyar

    Present address: Department of Biology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, 05405, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Konrad Lorenz Research Station, 4645, Grünau 11, Austria

    Thomas Bugnyar & Kurt Kotrschal

  2. Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, 3422, Altenberg, Austria

    Thomas Bugnyar

Authors
  1. Thomas Bugnyar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kurt Kotrschal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas Bugnyar.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bugnyar, T., Kotrschal, K. Leading a conspecific away from food in ravens (Corvus corax)?. Anim Cogn 7, 69–76 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-003-0189-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-003-0189-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation