Fun with Science Club®


			Can't find frozen pig intestines? Just follow the leader. Carrie Straight 05.18.01 Some bird species roost (hangout together) at night. A communal roost, where many birds of the same species roost, may benefit the birds by being able to warn others of predators, preserving warmth, and communicating locations of food. To find out more detail about the communication of food locations, a group of scientists from Norway placed radio tags on 34 hooded crows, Corvus corone cornix. By placing radio tags on the crows, the researchers could follow the crows movements with hand-held antennas and receivers. During the night the researchers put out a pile of food (yummy pig intestines) and located all of the radio-tagged crows. The next day they sat in a blind (their car) and watched the pile of food, recording which birds were there. The researchers relocated all of the radio-tagged crows the next night and watched the food pile the next day. From this information, the researchers could see if new crows that were not there the first day showed up at the food pile the second day. They could also see if the new crow roosted with a crow that had visited the food on the first day (a potential leader, showing the way). The results of the study showed that new crows on the second day were more likely to have roosted with potential leaders and that probably means that the new crows followed the leader to the food.


			Sonerud, Geir A., Christian A. Smedshaug, and Øystein Bråthen. 2001. Ignorant hooded crows follow knowledgeable roost-mates to food: support for the information centre hypothesis. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Biological Sciences Series. 268: 827-831.