Crows: Are They Scary Or Just Scary-Smart? : Short Wave

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A question to ponder this Halloween: Are crows scary — or scary-smart? • They can remember human faces for years • They have 'funerals' for their dead — a way to identify cause of death and communicate potential dangers • They create and use tools

to note their departed. American crows mark the passing of their dead in two ways: with alarm calls or a series of loud scolds, and with mobbing. Mobbing is when multiple crows hear an alarm call, gather around the dead crow and also begin to scold."This usually lasts around 15 to 20 minutes," Swift says.to understand why American crows do this. It turns out that the"funerals" have less to do with dirges and eulogies and more to do with identifying the cause of death.

The researchers fed crows over the course of several days to attract the crows to the area and figure out how long it took them to come down for a snack. Then a person wearing a mask carried a dead crow into the area. The crows scolded and dive-bombed that person. Later, if someone wearing the same mask returned to the area — even if they weren't bearing a dead crow — the birds scolded and dive-bombed them again."Basically," Swift says,"if they saw a person holding a dead crow would they learn that person's face and go, you know, guilty by association.

The crows were also slower to return to the feeding grounds once the area became associated with danger. Swift says this"suggests that crows did indeed learn from that experience, that although those Cheetos might be really tempting, because there was a dead crow here earlier, I should probably be extra careful before I come down and get my snack." Same, crows. Same.

 

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WKSUJeff I wonder if their leaders tell lies to their constituents?

Very neat

They develop trust by hiding items they deem of value and checking if any other crows steal it.

Sounds like *wisdom* was associated - by humans - to the wrong birds.

Crows are scar smart and very cool, I love them!

Do they say, “ Soon all these talking primates who are destroying the planet will be gone.”?

Makes sense

I love crows and think the birds are quite smart. They know to watch for traffic when flying around roads looking for something to eat.

Crows and ravens are super smart and ponder their own existence. Waaaay smarter than a lot of Americans. CrowsForPresident Crows science

Crows and raccoons are both underestimated and under appreciated.

.RustonKelly

They can be mischievous, anwry and not nice. They always expect some special food if you give it to them once. They don't just eat anything. You give them a cracker and it is like no thanks. What? Eat the cracker, they eat it maybe the next day if it is still there.

And way smarter than most GOP leaders, that's for damn sure. A group of GOP leaders would be called a 'corruption' although a 'murder' might work too after the pandemic failings. CHANGE2020 VoteOrDie

yikes- so that crow that bonked me off the head one day knew where I lived.......

I am afraid of the crows

WAY TO GO DO DONALD TRUMP! Today’s DON DEATH COUNT 235,248 Only one other nation leader IGNORED the daily death of Hundreds of his citizens. He committed suicide before the allies caught him so they could put him on trial for his atrocities.

Where is moybien1212 when you need him?

The Crows Have Eyes. Ca-caw!!

I ❤️ crows!!!

They will sacrifice themselves to save another

I was trying to plant a few tulip bulbs in a planter. For some reason the crows did not want me to. Within 30 min, they would remove the bulbs and toss them out. This happened four times. I gave up.

Very smart. They pick up walnuts in their beak, pound then on the roof to get them open. It will roll down into the gutter, they fish it out and keep going!

I adore crows, here in the PNW they are plentiful and I enjoy sitting back and watching their antics and community. I wasn't surprised at the news that they may be conscious creatures.

Crows & Ravens are amazing birds! Their intelligence rivals parrots & I find them beautiful & fascinating to watch!

Scary smart! For sure!

Crows aren't scary. They are just living their lives. But humans project all kinds of stuff on to them and blame them for the projections.

There’s a Spanish legend wherein a cadre of crows spreads the ashes of a scarecrow who’d wanted to be friends with them. He was killed by the misunderstanding humans.

I live in Alaska, so technically we have ravens rather than crows, but they are magnificent creatures. You can watch them reason out a problem, and they do work together all the time, especially if there is a food source to be acquired.

Scene_By_ALB

I love crows!! Some may view them as a bad omen, but crows are highly intelligent birds! They have amazing cognitive abilities !

No scarier than NPR🙃

crows can group hunt, which is why a flock of them is called, “a murder.”

We have chickens and encourage crows to hang around by having food and water they can access. The chickens hang out with them and treat them as part of the flock. The crows in turn chase off hawks, seen them do it dozens of times to protect their yard.

Since this is about corvid research, the official term for a group of crows, as all birds, is a flock, not a murder.

They hop around looking miserable in the rain, just to keep us company.

I witness a crow funeral. They took the body away and even came back the next day to pay respects.

Not scary. Fascinating, super-intelligent creatures.

Smart, smart, smart.

lil from column a lil from column b

Wicked smart is what they are.

There was a crow with a broken wing that couldn’t fly any more that took up residence behind my place. Every morning there was a ruckus as a flock of other crows would show up, bringing food scraps and sometimes shinies to their grounded friend. It was something else

Yes. Also, requisite holiday gif-

They are scary because there is SO MANY of them. Their numbers have been increasing because they are against birth control, and they are pro-sexual assault. They seem to be brainless!

They are wonderful!

I had a party at my house. Early the next morning I was awakened by the crows making all sorts of noise. I walked out onto my deck to find multiple empty beer cans on their sides, all pierced by a single hole. The crows were drunk.

Crows are so interesting + smart.

Scary

They’re easily trained to attack and have great memories. Love crows

It didn’t help when nature’s marketing division started calling a group of them a murder.

I think the better description would be 'fucking awesome smart'

I ❤️ crows.

Scary smart. Almost everyone knows about that UW study.

corvidresearch

terrifying

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