Don't Mess With Ravens, They Can Hold A Grudge Against You For As Long As Two Years
Researchers have found the birds can tell when you're treating them unfairly, and they'll remember your face.
If you¡¯re one to mock birds, with their dopey faces and silly ways, you¡¯d best stay away from ravens. Researchers have found that not only do they understand and remember when they¡¯ve been treated unfairly, they bear a grudge too.
People already have an idea of what kinds of personalities some animals have; dogs are known to be loyal and loving to a fault, cats are harder to win over and more aloof. Ravens, it seems are likely to remember your face if you¡¯re an awful person and prefer to stay away from you.
According to a study published in the scientific journal Animal Behaviour, ravens are just as capable as humans when it comes to bearing grudges for a long time. The team trained a batch of nine ravens for the experiment, to see if they could tell fair treatment from unfair, raising them in captivity in order to familiarise them with the research team.
For the test, the ravens were each put in a cage along with two trainers. The first trainer gave the raven a piece of bread, which it carried to the second trainer and exchanged for a piece of cheese. The second time around, the process was repeated, except the raven was rejected. Instead of receiving a piece of cheese for his bread offering, the raven instead had to watch the second trainer eat the cheese in front of him. If you think that¡¯s mean, you¡¯re not alone; apparently the ravens think so as well.
Two days later, seven of the birds were gathered together and presented with three trainers; the fair one who gave them bread, the unfair one who ate their cheese, and a third neutral trainer. Six of those seven birds chose the fair one, and one chose the neutral, but none of the ravens wanted anything to do with the cheese eater.
A month later, all nine birds were tested, and only one bird chose the mean trainer, with seven choosing the nice guy. In fact, experts believe the ravens may bear their grudges for even longer that just a month. The study¡¯s co-author Jorg Massen, a post-doctorate researcher at the University of Vienna, says the ravens may remember being slighted for as long as two years, which is how long they¡¯re capable of remembering who was in their cage.
If nothing else, just let this be a reminder that it¡¯s a bad idea to taunt a raven with food or fling a rock at it, or you might find yourself in a dark alley way two years later, staring down a jet black-feathered gang ready to extract revenge.
