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| Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds | 
| Author: Bernd Heinrich
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $6.20
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Avg. Customer Rating:  27 reviews
Sales Rank: 49703
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 0061136050
Dewey Decimal Number: 598.864
EAN: 9780061136054
ASIN: 0061136050
Publication Date: June 1, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 27 | | NEXT » |
 excellent scientist, writing, subject June 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Heinrich is a fine scientist with a flexible mind who enjoys animals, nature and adventure. He also writes well. While Heinrich knows all the rules of producing successful journal articles, he is sensitive to the anecdote which can also be enlightening.
Ravens are an interesting subject because they are very bright, are a social animal, and enjoy play. They also have language mimicking capabilities just like parrots, but unfortunately, no one has tried to systematically teach ravens to understand and use human language as they have with parrots. This may be because they are not very easy to have as pets. In fact one of the most enjoyable chapters is Heinrich's account of a couple who actually keep a raven indoors as a pet, although the raven often accompanies them outside, untethered.
There are a few negatives, none of which should discourage anyone from reading this book. In the early chapters, it seemed to me that too much time was spent discussing investigations that turned out not to be very enlightening. For me ravens are not as likeable as some other animals: they are too devoted to expressing dominance, even when it doesn't seem to provide evolutionary advantages; for example, they will expend great effort to keep other birds from bathing, ultimately fruitlessly, and without any benefit to themselves. Finally, Heinrich is convinced that genetic evolution has resulted in the symbiosis between raven and wolf, when it seems to me that he cannot rule out cultural evolution; Heinrich himself notes Raven culture, and its importance is indicated by the fact that ravens don't mate for 3 or 4 years, even though they grow to adult size in a few weeks. During that 3-4 years, they are learning.
Intelligent bird, observing man January 18, 2008
"Mind of the Raven" is science accessible to the non-scientist.
This very interesting narrative describes a biologist's quest to figure out how ravens work - is their behavior innate, governed solely by genes, or do they have some sort of thinking process? Each field experiment answers some questions and raises others, leading to further experiments, some worked in the wild, and some with birds he raised in captivity.
Bernd Heinrich finds that these birds apparently have an intelligent approach to life: they can learn from experience and have the ability to deal with potential predators, to hide food from competitors, and to figure out puzzles.
The reader gets a fascinating look not only at the behavior and mind of ravens but also insight into how a biologist's mind works.
I originally got this book out of the library, but liked it so much I bought two to give as gifts.
Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds
See others by the same author, for instance Bumblebee Economics
 Mind of the Raven July 31, 2006
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Very informative yet not too scientific. Contains many facts not commonly known about these intelligent birds. This book could change your mind about them.
The ultimate book of raven behavior April 3, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I knew the raven had many interesting feature to them before I opened this book but after reading "mind of the raven" I will say I was amazed of both the research Bernd Heinrich has done and of this remarkable bird. Heinrich are presenting his findings about the ravens where he is taking the subject (the raven) seriously and simultaneously managed to make it attractive for people that have not specialize in beaks and feathers.
3 - 2 - 1 .... March 16, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I agree with most reviewers that this book fascinates the reader with interesting science and anecdotes about ravens. There are countless facts and amusing information provided about the intelligence, behavior and antics of both wild and tame ravens. One of the more humorous sections was on vocal communication, particulary mimicking. Heinrich provides descriptions of captive ravens making perfect renditions of radio static, toilets flushing and a motorcycle being revved up. There was also a scientist in a national park who distictly heard several times: "Three, two, one, bcccchhhh", sounding as if coming from a speaker. This was acually a raven who was sufficiently impressed with the park rangers conducting avalanche control to repeat the count-down and sound of the explosion. Hilarious...
The experiments and observations the author describes of wild ravens in the forests of Maine, Alaska,the western states & elsewhere are also superbly written and provide insights into the interactions and cooperation of ravens with large (and dangerous) predators including Man.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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