Ravens and the evolution of intelligence | Jorg Massen | TEDxArnhem

Researcher Jorg Massen discovered remarkable behaviour in ravens that resembles human behaviour. Their peer cooperation and taking care of friendships sheds new light on how humans are wired: "To truly understand the evolution of intelligence, we have to broaden our horizons and also look at the behavior of much more distantly related species."

Jorg Massen (1981) is a behavioral biologist specialized in social cognition. His research focuses on the behavioral mechanisms underlying animal social relations, with special interest in cooperation and pro-sociality. Jorg started his career as a primatologist, working first on wild orangutans. He received his PhD for a study on friendship in macaques. Subsequently, he studied the famous chimpanzee population at Burgers’ Zoo in Arnhem.

Since 2012 Jorg works at the Department of Cognitive Biology, at the University of Vienna, Austria, mainly studying crows and ravens. In 2014 he set up his own azure-winged magpie lab. For his work, he received several (inter)national grants and awards.
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