• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • WordPress
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Crows & Faces Update

Crows & Faces Update

December 24, 2013
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/131224_sciup_face.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

BOB HIRSHON (host):

Crows with grudges. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

Threatening_mask_photo-250x349Marzluff lab
A researcher wearing a mask associated with threat holds a crow. (Marzluff lab/University of Washington)

Five years ago, we reported that crows remember the faces of people who captured them, even if the face is really just the same mask worn by different people. Well, eight years after the original experiment on the University of Washington campus, the crows are still afraid of the same mask, even though most of the original birds have died. This according to wildlife biologist John Marzluff.

JOHN MARZLUFF (University of Washington):

The birds still remember it even though the masked person hasn’t done anything bad to them for eight years; each time a bird responds and scolds that mask, it’s a new learning opportunity for everybody else.

HIRSHON:

Now, he and his team have found that the amygdala, an area of the brain associated with learned fear, becomes active when the crows see someone in a capturer’s mask. In contrast, when crows see the mask of someone who has fed them, a part of the brain associated with reward switches on. I’m Bob Hirshon, for AAAS, the science society.

 

Category: Daily Show, Station DownloadTag: Animal Behavior, Biology, Brain Science, Social & Behavioral Sciences, Wildlife
Previous Post:Coldest Place on Earth
Next Post:Far-Out Mega Planet

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Cat Video
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • NASA
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

Image of computer screen depicting an orange cat with a variety of alphanumeric scientific data superimposed on the the screen.
Spotted skunk performing handstand to threaten predators

Copyright © 2025 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos