But they are clever. Ravens are incredibly intelligent. Bernd Heinrich, professor of biology at the University of Vermont and perhaps the world's leading authority on ravens, demonstrated ravens' intelligence in a classic experiment in 1990. Several birds successfully got at the meat by pulling the string up and stepping on the pulled-up loops, until they grasped the food. I thought it demonstrated that ravens could see through a situation and figure out the answer.
Ravens are also good mimics.
They can imitate barking dogs, flowing creeks, even human speech. Another reported a raven that heard repeated explosions set off by a highway crew. Heinrich reports raven play behavior can incorporate anything from sliding down snow banks, hanging upside down, or approaching dogs and large predatory birds from behind to yank on their tails. In the Northeast, where common ravens were hunted almost to extinction, they are rare and skittish. In Tennessee they are listed as threatened by the state and currently being considered for reintroduction.