Ravens

Corvus corax

Listen to the Podcast

We humans learn some of our earliest life lessons from our brothers and sisters, watching what toys our siblings play with and what treats they stash away for later. In this Halloween season podcast, Ari Daniel Shapiro journeys to Austria to learn how such social learning happens in a spooky bird—the raven.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

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Meet the Scientists

Ravens Podcast: Meet the Scientist

Meet biologist Christine Schwab:

Where do you work?

The Department of Cognitive Biology at the University of Vienna, Austria.

What do you study?

I study social learning strategies in birds and how socially learned information spreads though groups of animals.

What are three titles you would give yourself?

Cognitive biologist, Homo corvidus, hockey maniac.

What do you like to do when you are not working?

Playing ice hockey and being outdoors.

What do you like most about science?

Science allows me to satisfy my never-ending curiousity nd to collaborate with exciting people and animals.

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Extras

Ravens Podcast: Extras

Video

You can see the playful side of corvids—and the researcher who studies them—in this video showing biologist Christine Schwab with a raven relative, the crow.

Images

We’ve put together a gallery of images from Ari’s visit to Schwab’s lab outside Vienna. The photos show Christine Schwab with her ravens. Image Credit: Ari Daniel Shapiro.

Facts

Participate

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is looking for some Bird Sleuths to count crows, ravens, and other corvids. The program is aimed at educators, homeschoolers, after-school programs, as well as museums and nature centers.

Want to share your images, videos and sounds of ravens with EOL? Learn how here.