Additionally, an important factor behind this mysterious connotation are the birds’ scavenging habits. This is mainly due to their black feathers and intense gaze that can be quite intimidating. Even now, when people see a raven soaring across the sky, their first thought is typically dread or mystery. Ravens are one of the most misunderstood creatures in nature, as they have been connected with death and dark things for centuries. Why do the ravens get such a bad reputation? In many cultures they are associated with bad luck and even seen as tricksters, leading to the phrase ‘an unkindness of ravens’. In some European cultures, it was also believed that hunting a raven would bring misfortune – adding another layer of superstitious warning! Collective nouns for a group of ravens Ravens have captured human attention throughout time and are deeply embedded in our mythology. Ravens are highly intelligent birds that form tight family units and care for their young with dedication, spending a great deal of their time nurturing and training their chicks. It is believed to have originated in the 19th century when people observed that ravens didn’t seem to demonstrate much concern or nurturance towards their young.Ĭontrary to what 19th-century folklore might suggest, ravens are actually gentle and caring parents who rarely expel their young before they’re ready to face the world. You can follow LiveScience Staff Writer Jennifer Welsh on Twitter microbelover.The origin of the name ‘unkindness’ for a group of ravens has a curious past. The research is detailed this week in the journal Biology Letters. ![]() "The hormonal mechanisms play an important role in stepping from the young adult life to the adult life, we think," Selva said. The stress may also nudge young ravens to grow up. That fuel boost would then allow the birds to travel and fight with the group to gain dominance. ![]() Selva agreed that the higher stress levels may be a response to the competition occurring in these groups, with the increased stress hormones triggering a boost of energy use. So those adult males without mates likely would be very stressed, Stöwe said, and it would be interesting to see their stress hormone levels at other times of the year. The samples were taken in January and February, a time when the ravens are pairing up and territories are secured. "So it might well be that the hormone content in the droppings (at least in some of them) reflects a stress response to previous events (fights etc.)." "We never know what the birds experienced before showing up at the carcass," Stöwe, who wasn't involved in the study, told LiveScience in an e-mail. Mareike Stöwe, a researcher at University of Veterinary Medicine, in Austria notes that stress hormone levels could be influenced by earlier events experienced by the birds, so it's difficult to truly know the baseline levels. In youth, though, the detrimental effects of the increased stress seem to be worth it in exchange for the safety in numbers from being in a flock. The flock is likely a stressful place because of the aggressive interactions that occur in competition for food and a place on the dominance hierarchy, he said. "They live in a much more stable and predictable environment than the nonbreeders and hence I would have expected that their life is less demanding." While Selva didn't expect these lower levels, Wolfgang Goymann, of the Max-Plank Institute for Ornithology, who wasn't involved in the study, says he thinks it makes sense. Also, the territory-based females had much lower hormones than their mates, which the researchers say might be due to their increased energetic demands on the males to defend the territory. "By logic, we would think that to maintain a territory would be much more stressful," Selva said, because these birds have to fight for their land. The flock-living ravens had higher stress levels than those paired up. They also tested the samples to determine the sex of the animal and if it was infected by parasites. They tested the samples for the levels of a stress hormone, called corticosterone, which regulates a bird's use of fuel, its immune health and its stress response. To get a better understanding of the bird's lifestyles, the researchers collected fecal samples from wild ravens that were either from young adults living in a flock, or from the territory of older birds living with a mate.
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