Cooperative hunting in Brown-Necked Raven (Corvus rufficollis) on Egyptian Mastigure (Uromastyx aegyptius)

Abstract

We describe cooperative hunting by Brownnecked Raven (Corvus ruficollis) on Egyptian Mastigure (Uromastyx aegyptius) in the Arava Valley, Israel. At first, in all nine observed hunts, the ravens were observed to be in the vicinity and were seen simultaneously. The Mastigure was almost always at a distance from the burrow entrance and either foraging on the bushes or lying flattened on a bush sunning itself. The attack started when a circling pair of ravens flew in at high speed and landed on the entrance of the burrow, cutting off the escape route of the lizard. Following this maneuver, the other ravens attacked the lizard. The ravens pecked randomly at the most exposed part of the lizard, eventually causing its death. Only when the lizard was evidently dead did the two individuals that blocked the escape route join in the feeding ravens.

Spatial planning with long visual range benefits escape from visual predators in complex naturalistic environments

“…Within ethology the use of occlusions to gain advantage during stalking and pursuit is well known in Carnivora 40,41 , though more common in felids than canids 42 . Moreover, similar to mammalian hunters, birds of prey are able to predict their prey's likely paths of egress to preemptively block and ambush the prey 43 using occlusions such as trees. This particular behavior is similar to luring strategies employed by our simulated prey.…”

Breaking the Social–Non‐social Dichotomy: A Role for Reptiles in Vertebrate Social Behavior Research?

“…data). Such partitioning is extremely rare in vertebrates (Gazda et al 2005), known from only a few mammal and bird species and two species of fish (Bednarz 1988;Leonardi 1999;Bowman 2003;Gazda et al 2005;Bshary et al 2006;Yosef & Yosef 2010).…”

Intelligences and Brains: An Evolutionary Bird's Eye View

“…The issue is complicated because strategies that might yield small gains in the short term may produce large losses in the long term. Aggressive behavior can yield immediate access to resources, but it can also prevent a lasting and more profitable friendly cooperation, thus compromising, for example, the advantage that groups can have over individuals when solving problems (Liker & B6kony, 2009;Seed, Clayton, & Emery, 2008;Yosef & Yosef, 2010). In any case, the ability to manipulate the behavior of others to one's own or one's group's advantage clearly involves special social skills (cf.…”