Ravens' cage anno 1829

Last week, Mathias, Ivo and Can attended the ASAB winter meeting in London. The meeting focused on recent research on The Evolution of Behavioural Mechanisms and was held in the Zoological society of London. Next to the Zoological Society is London zoo, where this 19th century raven cage can be found.

However beautiful, it's good to know that contemporary London zoo considers it too small to house ravens or king vultures. (Click on the picure to read the sign).

//Helena

Visit by Sydnytt

Yesterday, Bernard Mikulic from the regional tv-news Sydnytt visited the research station. It seems as if the ravens are getting used to media, because they were quite comfortable with both Bernard and his camera!

//Helena

Approved by the county administrative board!

This week, the raven facility was inspected by the county administrative board, which functions as a representative of the state in their respective counties. According to the The Animal Welfare Act (SFS 1988:534) all animals kept in captivity "shall be treated well and shall be protected from unnecessary suffering and disease. Animals shall also be accommodated and handled in an environment that is appropriate for the animal and which permits natural behavior" (CAB:s web site), and it is the task of the county administrative board to control that this is complied. The inspector was very nice and proficient, and she was impressed by the spacious aviaries. Of course this made us happy, but also a bit sad, as one could wish that many more animal enclosures would keep a better and bigger standard.

//Helena

Naturhistoriska riksmuseet

This week Mathias was in Stockholm to give two talks at "Naturhistoriska Riksmuseet". The museum has just inaugurated a permanent exhibition called "Djuret människan" focusing on the similarities and differences between humans and other animals. Apart from the talks Mathias has also contributed with information to the exhibition...and do you recognize the loving couple on the big screen behind Mathias? Yes, it is Siden and Juno.

//Helena

Electricity

Slowly the new parts of the facility are being finished. I've spent the last rainy days painting the lecture room in the attic, and today Kenneth, our nice and skilled electrician, is installing the electricity. Kenneth has done all the electrical work on the facility, which is both raven and rat safe.

Can is also here today to spend some time with the ravens and discuss the upcoming article writing with Mathias.  At the moment Can is spending a month with the neurobiologists at BMC to learn how to dissect and study bird brains.

//Helena

Anniversary talk

During the LUCS 25th anniversary, Mathias gave a talk (in Swedish) on how the similarities between corvid and great ape cognition can tell us more about how complex cognition has evolved. See the talk here!

//Helena

Last recordnings for the radio documentary

Today Lotta Malmstedt was here to record some additional audio for her radio documentary. She has spent half her summer going through and organizing interviews and recordnings, and just wanted to add a few missing details.
The ravens have grown quite accustomed to Lotta and her gear by now, so she was even able to record some parts inside the aviary.

We are looking forward to the programme!

//Helena