Bio Briefs

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Matt Nelson

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Aug 31, 2010
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Someday, this raven may fly to the rescue

Tags: neuroscience, university of arizona

[Source: NPR] - A couple of years ago, Emily Cory had an epiphany. She worked with raptors and owls at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. But she was fascinated by the one common raven there.

"She'd play horrible tricks on the volunteers, she'd get in so much trouble. She never forgot a thing, never missed a thing [and] that really got my attention," Cory says.

Cory began to realize just how smart this raven seemed to be. At the same time, she thought about her childhood in Sedona, where she used to watch helicopters from her house searching for lost hikers.

"I started thinking, 'Well how come nobody's put these two together?' Because clearly birds are easy to train — falconers have been training them for thousands of years. And ravens are super intelligent," she says.

For more information:  Someday, This Raven May Fly To The Rescue