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Nonbreeding common ravens Corvus corax possess high degrees of behavioral and ecological flexibility29 and have been reported engaging in primate-like social strategies29 such as providing no or false food information, attributing perception and knowledge states of group members to other group members30, forming and maintaining affiliate social relations apart from reproduction31, understanding rank hierarchies among conspecifics is central to forming these affiliate relationships, yet their understanding of third-party rank relations through observation remains unknown.

At two sites (Austria and Italy), where ravens showed consistent use of human-produced resources such as animal carcasses and night roosts for foraging purposes, we examined GPS-tagged individuals. Our analyses found that combinations between local ravens and individuals from another study site co-occurred frequently; their relative frequency being greater for locals than frequent or rare visitors.

We conducted a playback experiment using 16 subadult captive common ravens in which we employed rank hierarchy manipulation that either confirmed or violated their current order of ranks within their group and with another nearby group, and we discovered that both male and female ravens showed strong recognition of third-party rank relations among individuals they regularly interact with, suggesting they understand rank hierarchies through both physical interaction as well as observation alone.