Abstract

Ravens behave in ways that suggest they are really smart. Most scientists studying animal intelligence focus on monkeys and apes like macaques and chimpanzees. One group of scientists made a set of puzzles that tested primates’ physical and social thinking skills. We wanted to know more about ravens’ intelligence, and we wanted to be able to compare ravens and great apes. So, we changed the set of puzzles to make sure they could be solved by a bird using a beak instead of fingers. We found that ravens did just as well as the apes on almost all of the puzzles!