Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 5, 2026
06:14
A Method for Investigating Change Blindness in Pigeons (Columba Livia)
Published on: September 7, 2018
Fluctuations in direct human presence, not predictable weekly cycles, influence avoidance behaviour in ravens
Varalika Jain1,2, Matthias-Claudio Loretto3, Thomas Bugnyar4,5
1Konrad Lorenz Research Center for Behavior and Cognition, Core Facility of the University of Vienna, Grünau im Almtal, 4645, Austria. Varalika.jain@univie.ac.at.
Movement Ecology
|June 4, 2026
Summary
Ravens flexibly adjust their foraging and space use to avoid human activity, showing behavioral flexibility rather than strictly following a weekend effect pattern. This highlights wildlife adaptation to human-influenced environments.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Animal Behavior
- Spatial Ecology
Background:
- Human activity creates cyclic patterns of opportunities and disturbances for wildlife.
- The weekend effect hypothesis suggests human weekday-weekend routines impact wildlife behavior.
- Ravens at an outdoor park exploit food resources linked to human visitor activity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test if ravens anticipate predictable weekday-weekend human activity patterns ('5+2' structure).
- To determine if ravens respond flexibly to fluctuations in direct human activity levels.
- To understand wildlife response strategies to human activity patterns.
Main Methods:
- Utilized long-term GPS tracking data of free-flying ravens.
- Examined raven foraging probability and space use across daily and bihourly scales.
- Analyzed data over five years, including pandemic restrictions, and six weeks of detailed observation.
Main Results:
- Found limited support for a strict '5+2' weekend effect pattern in raven behavior.
- Ravens consistently avoided areas with elevated human activity.
- Observed decreased foraging probability and increased space use by ravens in response to human presence.
Conclusions:
- Ravens exhibit behavioral flexibility in response to human-induced disturbances.
- Wildlife can adapt movement and foraging to exploit anthropogenically created resources.
- Changes in human resource use and disturbance patterns can have significant knock-on effects on wildlife.
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