“Look at That!”—Ravens Use Gestures, Too

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The Max Planck Institute for Ornithology

First posted on 12-01-2011

Ravens gesture with their beaks to point out objects to each other.

Until recently, pointing and holding up objects in order to attract attention has only been observed in humans and in our closest living relatives, the great apes. The Max Planck Institute for Ornithology discovered the first evidence that ravens use deictic gestures to test the interest of a potential partner, or to strengthen an already existing bond.

Beginning in early childhood, youngsters frequently use distinct gestures to draw the attention of adults to external objects. These deictic gestures—such as “pointing” ("look here") and “holding up of objects” ("take this")—are used by children for the first time at the age of nine to twelve months, before they produce their first spoken words. Scientists believe such gestures are based on relatively complex intelligence capabilities and represent the starting point for the use of symbols, which leads to human language. Deictic gestures are milestones in the development of human speech.

Surprisingly, observations of comparable gestures in the great apes are relatively rare. Chimpanzees, for example, use directed scratches to indicate distinct spots on their bodies they want groomed.

Deictic gestures are considered an extremely rare form of communication, thought to be confined only to primates. The Max Planck Institute research, however, challenges this theory. Scientists involved in the study observed ravens using their beaks as humans use hands—to show and offer objects such as moss, stones and twigs. These distinct gestures were predominantly aimed at partners of the opposite sex. Subsequently, the ravens interacted with each other with joint manipulation of the object.

Ravens are songbirds belonging to the corvid family, along with crows and magpies. They surpass most of the other avian species in terms of intelligence, with scores on various intelligence tests close to par with those of great apes. Ravens in particular can be characterized by complex intra-pair communication, relatively long-time periods to form bonds and a relatively high degree of cooperation between partners.

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