Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Researchers say crows use their beaks to gesture and communicate

Researchers say crows (OK ravens but we all know they are practically the same thing) use their beaks to gesture and communicate. Well doh!
Previously, so-called deictic gestures – such as pointing to signify "look" and holding something out to someone to signify "take" – were considered solely the province of human beings and our nearest relatives, the great apes.
Apparently the researchers looked at thirty-eight social interactions between seven ravens. Wow, what a pathetically sized data set! If there was a bird like me there then that would certainly skew the data.