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| Ravens in Winter | 
| Author: Bernd Heinrich
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy Used: $2.19
You Save: $14.76 (87%)
New (4) from $11.53
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 64463
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0679732365
Dewey Decimal Number: 598.864
EAN: 9780679732365
ASIN: 0679732365
Publication Date: October 1, 1991
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: , corners bent, Used - Good. Sound Copy. Mild Reading Wear.
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 13 | | NEXT » |
 More than Ravens September 26, 2006
A very interesting book. I found the hardships the author so enthusiastically suffered for his research even more interesting than the ravens. Doctor Heinrich was not a young man when he began the research in the frozen Maine woods. I believe he was about 45 when he started and close to 50 when he finished this particular phase of study. He was climbing close to the top of 100 foot trees in freezing or below freezing weather, he was shivering in blinds (and in his cabin) for hours in below 0 weather, he hauled hundreds of pounds of meat in snow and sleet countless times. He walked and sometimes ran many, many miles through the snow with and without snowshoes. He was up before dawn many, many times. Pretty amazing.
Of course, his raven research is extremely interesting. I thought I had heard at least one of them sound like a barking dog at my cabin in the Canadian woods. My dog barks in the cabin when I have to leave him when it's too hot to take him in the car. I know now that it's possible the raven copied the bark.
Certainly worth reading even if you aren't a scientist.
Precise and poetic October 9, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Academic field biologist Bernd Heinrich created a poetic and spiritual account of his exacting field observations regarding the intelligence of ravens. This book is moving and illuminating. It is also a true life mystery novel that keeps you turning pages to see how it all works out. The best part: Bernd Heinrich has written many other books equal to this one.
Exploration in Ethology July 7, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This book provides an introduction into how questions of animal behavior are asked and answered. Heinrich, a professor of zoology and naturalist noticed that crows seemed to call others to join them when they discovered large animal kills in the winter. Such behavior would seem to be against the crows' best interest, since an individual crow could perhaps have more food if it kept it all for itself. This set Heinrich's curiosity afire, which impelled him to embark on a multi-year study of crow behavior so that he could determine why the crows seem so eager to share their bounty. In this book, presented as a daily journal, Heinrich details his project, from the original posing of the question through final publication of the results. He describes how he gathered downer cows, transported them to the study site, and how he observed crow behavior for hours and days on end at feeding sites. He also describes how he trapped and banded crows so that he could record the behavior of individuals over time. In the end, he builds a very solid case for the idea that juvenile crows recruit others to overwhelm resident crows who would otherwise defend their territory (and food) from outsiders. The book is illustrated with a set of black-and-white drawings done by Heinrich. End material includes appendices with numerical and graphical analyses of the study data, an extensive bibliography, and an index.
What takes this book beyond simple ecological description is Heinrich's careful inclusion of his methodology. He is very much a teacher, so he takes great care to explain how he came up with his hypotheses about the recruiting behavior, which in the beginning numbered not one but nine. He discusses scientific methodology, the right way and wrong way to observe natural phenomena, as well as background material about ravens. He also notes how any one piece of data or type of data do not in themselves lead to a conclusion, but that the final result in this type of research must be constructed by examining all the data, and seeing how they all point in the same direction. I found one comment particularly fascinating. Somewhere along the way, I had been told that animals do not have the mental capacity to experience emotions, or that if they do experience emotions at all, such emotions are simple and limited. But Heinrich states "Birds are primarily emotional beings, and their responses to emotional drives are probably much more direct than ours are, since human reactions are tempered by reason." When one considers animal behavior in this light, much becomes clear, yet many more questions arise.
 Great book on observing nature, but not the best on ravens October 12, 2004
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
As readers of his other books know, Bernd Heinrich is an outstanding observer of nature. He has retained his childlike curiosity, and enjoys poking around under rocks, climbing trees to look around, and conducting simple experiments in the woods to see what will happen.
He has long since grown up into a scientist and a teacher as well. As a result, he knows how to take notes, conduct a literature review, justify his conclusions, and convey information to readers.
In this book, he does all this very well in trying to figure out a puzzle of raven behavior. If you want to walk with him on an intellectual journey, this is a five-star book.
But . . . I wanted a book about ravens. Instead of the journey, I wanted the destination. There is a better book out there on ravens, and as it turns out, Bernd Heinrich wrote that one, too. If, like me, you want to know what we know about these remarkable, intelligent birds, read Heinrich's "Mind of the Raven" instead.
Bernd Heinrich teaches us how to study animal behavior July 22, 2004
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Mr. Heinrich has hit on a truth: when studying the behavior of animals you must remain mentally flexible, keep an open mind and open senses, and keep your eye on the big picture--all while preventing yourself from either trying to make the organism either too human or too robotic. He has developed an amazing capacity, rare among scientists, to do all these things while balancing them with the need for a scientific approach, and that skill has led him to exciting results. While his approach may seem frustratingly scattershot to those who practice or admire "pure" sciences like mathematics, it is revealed in this book as the only method that can provide rapid (within a human lifetime), ground-breaking results in the complex and chaotic world of behavioral research. Heinrich has revealed ravens as neither humans wearing feathers nor as creatures of knee-jerk instinct, but rather as fascinating and intelligent members of our living planet. I am in as much awe of his ability to penetrate to the reasons behind behaviors as I am of his endurance, strength, persistence, and love of nature. I'm going to have to read his book on bumblebees next--and in fact, every one of his books!
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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