Name: Mind of the Raven
ISBN: 9780061136054

Mind of the Raven

In Mind of the Raven, Bernd Heinrich, award - winning naturalist, finds himself dreaming of ravens and decides he must get to the truth about this animal reputed to be so intelligent.Much like a sleuth, Heinrich involves us in his quest, letting one clue lead to the next. But as animals can only be spied on by getting quite close Heinrich adopts ravens, thereby becoming a "raven father," as well as observing them in their natural habitat, studying their daily routines, and in the process painting a vivid picture of the world as lived by the ravens. At the heart of this book are Heinrich's love and respect for these complex and engaging creatures, and through his keen observation andanalysis, we become their intimates too.Throughout history there has existed an extraordinary relationship between humans and ravens. Ravens, like early humans, are scavengers on the kills of great carnivores. As scavengers, ravens were associated with hunters they found in the north: wolves and, later, men. The trinity of wolf, man, and raven in the hunt is an extremely ancient one. In considering the appeal of the raven, Bernd Heinrich suspects that a meeting of the minds might reside in that hunting trinity.Heinrich's passion for ravens has led him around the world in his research.

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wpietriMay 2024

I think you're right, but historically there have been problems. Frans de Waal has written about how in his field there was a lot of early egregious anthropomorphizing. As people realized how flawed that was, they swung around the other way, to refusing to consider analogous human behavior. But things like de Waal's work demonstrating moral sense in animals is hard to explain in any other way. [1]

Even so, it can be tricky. In Bernd Heinrich's excellent "Mind of the Raven" [2], he points to a story where a woman, lost in the wilderness, noticed a raven crying near her and spotted something like a mountain lion creeping up on her. In the news story she gave the raven credit for warning her and saving her life. But Heinrich points out that ravens have a demonstrated history of leading predators to prey, because that way they get the leftovers with much lower risk. So although the woman was correct that the raven understood her danger and was demonstrating advanced social cooperation, her anthropomorphic bias led her to perhaps be dangerously wrong about who the raven was trying to help.

So although I think shorthand like, "The octopus is playing" is fine for casual use, I think serious people have to always be challenging those tempting assumptions.

[1] e.g., this book https://www.amazon.com/Good-Natured-Origins-Humans-Animals/d... or this TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiU6TxysCg

[2] A stellar book, and I recommend it strongly to anybody fascinated by corvids or interested in decoding animal behavior more generally: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/mind-of-the-raven-ber...

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strangattractorMar 2024

May I suggest the book "Mind of the Raven" by Bernd Heinrich. Excellently written and extremely interesting. He has spent a life time studying animal behavior in particular Corvidae.

"Bernd Heinrich is a biologist and author of numerous books on the natural world. He lives in Richmond, VT, and in a cabin in the forests of western Maine."

https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Raven-Investigations-Adventures-...

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wpietriFeb 2023

Yes, 100% agreed. In the human linage, deception long predates language, so it makes a lot of sense that birds get up to the same thing.

If you're interested in bird cognition, I strongly recommend Mind of the Raven. It's a very personal book by someone who did field experiments with ravens and richly conveys the challenges of understanding what they're up to. I read it because I became pals with a raven whose territory I lived in for a while. Unlike most birds I've dealt with, it was pretty clear to me that the raven and I were both thinking about what the other was thinking.

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paulette449Dec 2022

While this thread is about crows, I can't recommend Bernd Heinrich's books, many of which feature his relationship with ravens, highly enough. A Year in the Maine Woods [1] is a classic. Mind of the Raven [2] and Ravens in Winter [3] may be of interest to anyone following this thread and since I am speaking about ravens in a thread about crows, an Audubon article "How to Tell a Raven from a Crow" [4] may also be of interest.

[1] - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77166.A_Year_in_the_Main... [2] - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/254704.Mind_of_the_Raven [3] - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/122665.Ravens_in_Winter [4] - https://www.audubon.org/news/how-tell-raven-crow

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technobabblerMar 2022

FYI there is also an illustrated edition, with cool pictures illustrating cool tree things: https://greystonebooks.com/products/the-hidden-life-of-trees...!

If you like scientific nonfiction in this vein, I'd also recommend:

- The Wild Trees

- Mycelium Running

- Mind of the Raven

- The Klamath Knot

Or if you want tree fiction:

- The Overstory

(edit: dunno how to do bullet lists here)

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amilein7minutesSep 2020

Bernd Heinrich is a naturalist and professor who has written plenty of uniquely insightful and highly accessible books on the intelligence of birds, among other species. One of his authoritative books is the "Mind of the raven", which analyzes the question of consciousness in ravens. From the description on Amazon: "Mind of the Raven follows an exotic journey;from New England to Germany, and from Montana to Baffin Island in the high Arctic;offering dazzling accounts of how science works in the field, filtered through the eyes of a passionate observer of nature. Each new discovery and insight into raven behavior is thrilling to read, at once lyrical and scientific."

Another of his books that particularly sheds light on the unimaginably mature navigation skills and the ultraendurance of our avian brethren: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-homing-instinct-bernd-h...

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