“On the road to wisdom, behave like a raven and observe everything carefully!” – Mehmet Murat Ildan, writer

Much has been made about the genius of the raven. They are intelligent, aware of the present and the immediate past, and shockingly enough, can understand the concept of zero. But one raven has recently gone viral for his ability to find a way to get his food out from inside a puzzle his human made.

And all Gosha, the raven, needed was a stick. Alexander Sergeevich, Gosha’s owner, records himself feeding the bird. He inserts food into a tube, but as Gosha soon finds out, the food isn’t reachable. Clearly annoyed, Gosha uses Alexander’s hand to try and get closer to the food, carrying a white stick with him. But the heavy stick falls to the ground.

@birdsnature1406 The Raven uses stick and plastic tube to get food #raven #crow #birdsoftiktok #birds #smartbird ♬ original sound – Birds Nature

Gosha doesn’t give up. He flies down and grabs the fallen stick, but when Gosha realizes he can’t carry it because of its weight, he picks it up from the middle and then maneuvers it into the tube, which allows him to push his food through the tube, freeing them. Gosha eats quickly, all while Alexander is praising him with scratches.

Alexander and Gosha have had quite the following, even before this recent viral video. Gosha can answer up to 30 commands, which is an amazing feat for him. In another video, Alexander has the raven perform a series of tricks  outside, from bringing him snow to rescuing his glove from a tree.

But Gosha’s talents are no surprise. Ravens have been studied and are considered to be highly intelligent. One 2017 study in the journal “Science” said that the clever creatures are able to plan ahead for certain situations better than four-year-old humans.

Gaosha working to free his food that is stuck in the pipe. Photo courtesy of Alexander Sergeevich

For Alexander, though, it’s the companionship the raven has brought him ever since he found Gosha as a tiny chick. “I often go to the forest to enjoy the nature and relax, have a campfire and drink tea. On one of these days, I passed an old felling and noticed that two black ravens were circling nearby and were shouting loudly,” he recalled.

“Usually this means that they have found a dead animal and are calling relatives, or something threatens their chicks,” Alexander said. I decided to go up and see what happened. When I came closer to the place where they were flying, I found a freshly felled tree as there had been strong winds the night prior.”

And that is when he saw Gosha. “I examined it and closer to the top of the tree I saw a large nest, and a chick lay next to it under the branches,”  Alexander said. He researched how to take care of a raven, even finding a specialist to help him learn how to raise and train Gosha.

I decided to take him, otherwise he would have died.”

Now, Gosha has a happy life, living in Alexander’s garden in an open-air cage. The raven has his quirks, his owner said, but they work around them. “… Gosha sometimes throws himself at people, so you have to walk far from houses,” Alexander said. “(Gosha) does not contact other family members in any way, he bites everyone, he only recognises me.”

All of this, though, doesn’t change the fact that having Gosha has changed Alexander’s life for the better. He set up a YouTube channel, as well as a TikTok account for Gosha, which has more than 1 million followers. “When I feel sad, I watch old videos with Gosha and I feel much better,’ Alexander said. Watch this smart little bird below!

Sources: My Modern Met | Daily Mail