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 Are Crow's smart?Arguments? |
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i agree. |
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Yes sir Friend or Foe? Crows Never Forget a Face, It Seems By Michelle NijhuisAug. 25, 2008 Crows and their relatives among them ravens, magpies and jays are renowned for their intelligence and for their ability to flourish in human-dominated landscapes. That ability may have to do with cross-species social skills. In the Seattle area, where rapid suburban growth has attracted a thriving crow population, researchers have found that the birds can recognize individual human faces. John M. Marzluff, a wildlife biologist at the University of Washington, has studied crows and ravens for more than 20 years and has long wondered if the birds could identify individual researchers. Previously trapped birds seemed more wary of particular scientists, and often were harder to catch. “I thought, ‘Well, it’s an annoyance, but it’s not really hampering our work,’ ” Dr. Marzluff said. “But then I thought we should test it directly.” To test the birds’ recognition of faces separately from that of clothing, gait and other individual human characteristics, Dr. Marzluff and two students wore rubber masks. He designated a caveman mask as “dangerous” and, in a deliberate gesture of civic generosity, a Dick Cheney mask as “neutral.” Researchers in the dangerous mask then trapped and banded seven crows on the university’s campus in Seattle. I KNOW YOU John M. Marzluff, a wildlife biologist tested crows’ ability to distinguish between faces.Top, Keith Brust; Jeff Walls In the months that followed, the researchers and volunteers donned the masks on campus, this time walking prescribed routes and not bothering crows. The crows had not forgotten. They scolded people in the dangerous mask significantly more than they did before they were trapped, even when the mask was disguised with a hat or worn upside down. The neutral mask provoked little reaction. The effect has not only persisted, but also multiplied over the past two years. Wearing the dangerous mask on one recent walk through campus, Dr. Marzluff said, he was scolded by 47 of the 53 crows he encountered, many more than had experienced or witnessed the initial trapping. The researchers hypothesize that crows learn to recognize threatening humans from both parents and others in their flock. After their experiments on campus, Dr. Marzluff and his students tested the effect with more realistic masks. Using a half-dozen students as models, they enlisted a professional mask maker, then wore the new masks while trapping crows at several sites in and around Seattle. The researchers then gave a mix of neutral and dangerous masks to volunteer observers who, unaware of the masks’ histories, wore them at the trapping sites and recorded the crows’ responses. The reaction to one of the dangerous masks was “quite spectacular,” said one volunteer, Bill Pochmerski, a retired telephone company manager who lives near Snohomish, Wash. “The birds were really raucous, screaming persistently,” he said, “and it was clear they weren’t upset about something in general. They were upset with me.” The researchers used a simple hat and masks to test the animals' abilities. Jeff Walls Again, crows were significantly more likely to scold observers who wore a dangerous mask, and when confronted simultaneously by observers in dangerous and neutral masks, the birds almost unerringly chose to persecute the dangerous face. In downtown Seattle, where most passersby ignore crows, angry birds nearly touched their human foes. In rural areas, where crows are more likely to be viewed as noisy “flying rats” and shot, the birds expressed their displeasure from a distance. Though Dr. Marzluff’s is the first formal study of human face recognition in wild birds, his preliminary findings confirm the suspicions of many other researchers who have observed similar abilities in crows, ravens, gulls and other species. The pioneering animal behaviorist Konrad Lorenz was so convinced of the perceptive capacities of crows and their relatives that he wore a devil costume when handling jackdaws. Stacia Backensto, a master’s student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks who studies ravens in the oil fields on Alaska’s North Slope, has assembled an elaborate costume including a fake beard and a potbelly made of pillows because she believes her face and body are familiar to previously captured birds. Kevin J. McGowan, an ornithologist at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology who has trapped and banded crows in upstate New York for 20 years, said he was regularly followed by birds who have benefited from his handouts of peanuts and harassed by others he has trapped in the past. Why crows and similar species are so closely attuned to humans is a matter of debate. Bernd Heinrich, a professor emeritus at the University of Vermont known for his books on raven behavior, suggested that crows’ apparent ability to distinguish among human faces is a “byproduct of their acuity,” an outgrowth of their unusually keen ability to recognize one another, even after many months of separation. Dr. McGowan and Dr. Marzluff believe that this ability gives crows and their brethren an evolutionary edge. “If you can learn who to avoid and who to seek out, that’s a lot easier than continually getting hurt,” Dr. Marzluff said. “I think it allows these animals to survive with us and take advantage of us in a much safer, more effective way.” www.nytimes.com |
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Anyway: Birds like Crows are on the flyer side and birds like ostriches are on the non-flyer side (Penguins are apparently on the flyer side). Hm-mm? Right, wrong? |
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gifting crows...😀 If you think animals do not have the emotional capacity to be thankful to those who help them, the story of Stuart Dahlquist and his crows should change your mind. He has been feeding a family of crows in the backyard for about 4 years. In return, the crows gave him a gift for taking care of them! Several years back, Dahlquist came across two chicks from a family of crows that had fallen out of their nest and were struggling in his front yard. The parents were unable to help them. “[The chicks] were almost able to fly, but instead were just running around the yard — their parents squawking… I caught the two of them and got them into a tree. I put some food and water underneath them in case they fell again… The adults were really pissed off… but seemed to begin paying more attention to us,” he said to The Dodo. Dahlquist then started to throw some food in his front yard on a regular basis, something that the crows soon noticed and were quite happy with. Last March, when he was preparing for the daily feeding schedule, Dahlquist noticed there was a fir sprig at the exact spot where he feeds the crows. And the fir was decorated with a soda can tab. The very next day, he received another fir sprig decorated with the soda tab, something that blew Dahlquist’s mind since it clearly indicated that the crows were gifting him things. Dahlquist uploaded a picture of the sprigs on his Twitter account, which went viral and has garnered more than 34,000 likes and 10,000 retweets. The crows have grown very close to Dahlquist. When he’s walking, the crows will fly with him, landing on nearby branches or wires along the path. When they feel hungry, the crows land on the fence and make noises to indicate that they want to be fed. According to animal behaviorist Kaeli Swift, the gifting behavior of crows is something that she has never encountered before. However, she does accept that it wouldn’t be surprising if some crows did act in such a manner. Swift believes that the incident is a clear example of how crows around us are actually watching and observing us rather than just mindlessly standing there, essentially “data mining” human beings to identify the best way to manipulate us. Crow behavior Crows can not only recognize individual human beings, but they can also make tools and learn from one another. Conservation ecologist John Marzluff points out that wild crows are known to leave behind items like bones, keys, lost earrings, etc., to people who feed them, something he categorizes as gifting. A study done in 2014 by an Austrian university found that crows and ravens exchanged objects with human experimenters they were familiar with. Given this evidence, it isn’t surprising that Dahlquist’s crows left him some items to show their appreciation. A paper published in 2019 found that crows tend to behave more optimistically after they use tools. Co-author of the report Dakota McCoy theorizes that this habit probably indicates that crows get a sense of self-satisfaction from doing things they are good at or have trained for a long time. He believes that the study can be applied to other creatures as well, especially captive animals. By providing them with complex tasks, the welfare of such captive creatures might be improved. www.visiontimes.com |
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Volhic Some Covids have been observed using a previously believed exclusive to humans thought process known as "multi tooling". For example: Splitting a short stick and inserting another short stick to make a long stick, and/or using a tool to manufacture a different type of tool that might serve a different purpose--- Crows crows have been observed doing both of these. Crows can also find an object through a mirror --- Another operation that was recently thought exclusive to humans. Have YOU ever tried that? |
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The Prehistoric 'Birds' |
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The Terror Birds. Those were the days!! |
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Not only smart... But more impressive is that they are very smart with such a lightweight brain. The penalty for being heavier than required hits flying animals very hard, while being heavy is actually beneficial to ground-dwelling critters because it makes them more effective fighters (as either predators or to fight off predation). So there is no significant penalty in being over-weight for non-flyers. This has driven crows to pack all that intelligence into the smallest packet of brain cells possible. Bird lungs are also much more efficient that mammalian lungs. All round, flying birds are incredibly efficient critters! |
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Blue Jays It's my observation that Blue Jays are superb pilots and that male blue jays might use near impossible aerobatics to impress the lady's. Bob: And a birds digestive system can digest food in 30-minutes. I believe a birds digestive system can also "filter" oxygen into it's bloodstream. |
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One |
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stalhandske 06-Aug-20, 06:29 |
Not to my knowledge, but the bird's ways of extracting oxygen from the atmosphere are indeed much more extensive than ours en.wikipedia.org |
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Z |
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stalh Birds are almost like looking at God, huh? |
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Are Trees Smart? |
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jonheck 06-Aug-20, 10:14 |
zorroloco |
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VT birds |
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Bird Lovers |
