Ravens, Corvus corax, follow gaze direction of humans around obstacles |
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Authors: | Bugnyar Thomas Stöwe Mareike Heinrich Bernd |
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Institution: | Department of Biology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405, USA. thomas.bugnyar@univie.ac.at |
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Abstract: | The ability to follow gaze (i.e. head and eye direction) has recently been shown for social mammals, particularly primates. In most studies, individuals could use gaze direction as a behavioural cue without understanding that the view of others may be different from their own. Here, we show that hand-raised ravens not only visually co-orient with the look-ups of a human experimenter but also reposition themselves to follow the experimenter's gaze around a visual barrier. Birds were capable of visual co-orientation already as fledglings but consistently tracked gaze direction behind obstacles not before six months of age. These results raise the possibility that sub-adult and adult ravens can project a line of sight for the other person into the distance. To what extent ravens may attribute mental significance to the visual behaviour of others is discussed. |
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