The recollection of a face, reflections on corvid recognition.
I’d offer this: these days, there’s more interest in the corvid population than ever before. Why? Because we’ve all learned about the degree of intelligence that is connected with the family. And somehow, there’s some disconnection from an earlier proposition that perhaps the corvid clan of birds are inherently linked to evil.
Now, there’s a positioning that actually the “renegade raiders” are something that are more interesting, worthy of study, and less so to the issue of rampant garbage gatherers. Being a person that is seen as a corvid champion, people are frequently reaching to me, with yet another story. The idea of corvids having an extraordinary recollection of facial characteristics is fascinating — especially given our challenges in recalling visages. That story, here. That’s one year ago. Now, back again: here’s something to the notion of following faces — even chasing them down (forever), here.
Try it yourself, here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111040421
Doesn’t stop there, of course. Rooks work out other forms of challenge recognition, like classical puzzles, shown in this story: One of Aesop’s fables may have been based on fact, scientists report.
“In the tale, written more than 2,000 years ago, a crow uses stones to raise the water level in a pitcher so it can reach the liquid to quench its thirst. Now a study published in Current Biology reveals that rooks, a relative of crows, do just the same when presented with a similar situation.”
And, wouldn’t you know — there’s more in line with the thinking here, exploring the bird brains:
SEE ALSO
Rooks reveal remarkable tool-use
26 May 09 | Science & Environment
Meet the brains of the animal world
07 May 09 | Science & Environment
Clever crows are caught on camera
04 Oct 07 | Science & Environment
Cleverest crows opt for two tools
16 Aug 07 | Science & Environment
Magpie ‘can recognize reflection’
19 Aug 08 | Science & Environment
Rooks team up to solve problems
31 Mar 08 | Science & Environment
I’ve linked up plenty in the past, just to the space of personal reflections. My beginnings, with the crow, ravened class. There are other Girvin tellings, of the love of the bird — a personal brand icon, perhaps. Adventuring. Ravening, inspirations. Crows at TED, perhaps one of the most sophisticated forums on design, technology and entertainment in the world. There, to the mere opening, crow|twitter sites. That’s good to know, the community has cawed to another form of quork, like these: ACrowCity; Seattle Crow Project, Crow reports, Crow sightings, Crow Planet, or Crow Society.
Super hip, crows.
tsg
….
Ravens | love | humans:
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