Crows Reconcile After Fighting

Making up with a friend after a fight is not easy. Yet crows have drawn attention after they were found to apologize for their behavior following disputes with one another.

Crows belong to the crow family and are birds similar to magpies and nutcrackers, known for their high intelligence. Studies have also demonstrated tool use and logical reasoning abilities in birds of the crow family.

Crows also tend to maintain relationships formed while traveling in groups for a long time, remaining together until death.

A research team led by Miriam Sima and Simone Pika of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Ornithology conducted an experiment to investigate these traits in greater depth. When the researchers placed crows in a cage containing food, the birds competed for the limited supply and showed mild aggression toward one another.

However, the experiment found that after attacking, the crows groomed their opponents' feathers. This indicated that the crows were apologizing for their behavior.

This was the first study to demonstrate that birds reconcile after conflict. The research team explained, "Behaviors such as post-conflict reconciliation and third-party intervention have both been reported in studies of nonhuman primates, but these behaviors also exist in other mammals and in birds such as crows."

The study also found that even crows that did not know each other well reconciled after fighting by grooming one another.

Crows have an image as symbols of death. However, this study revealed their gentler side: as social animals, they value relationships and reconcile after conflict.