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When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

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141–150 of 242 posts

Re: When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

#141
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What most people don't realize is that most live forms lower on the chain can read our minds. So if the crow's reaction was different based on what you wanted to throw, it's because it knew what you wanted to do before you did it. It was reading your thoughts. Dogs and cats do it too. A few years ago I went to a farm to buy a goat. The younger goats did not know why I was there, but when an older goat saw me and our…

Don't downvote, it's true. Animals can read your thoughts. The mechanism seems to be that they can see your visualizations: I can call my sister's cat in from outside "telepathically" by clearly "seeing" in my mind's eye the cat walking in the back door and "sending" the imagery to him. Sometimes the if the back door is closed and I'm not distracted by computer or something he "calls" me to open the door. Subjectivel…

>Don't downvote, it's true. Animals can read your thoughts. The mechanism seems to be that they can see your visualizations: I can call my sister's cat in from outside "telepathically" by clearly "seeing" in my mind's eye the cat walking in the back door and "sending" the imagery to him.

Unsubstantiated nonsense. Your perception that this is a real phenomena is not evidence that it actually exists.

Re: When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

#142
post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To put the story you linked in context, it's less "little girl feeds a couple of crows" and more "large scale feeding operation" that pisses of the neighbors: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Neighbors-sue-to-stop...

The problem I see with "little girl feeds a couple of crows" is that the "couple of crows" will inevitably grow to a larger number...

... and then, in all likelihood, a murder.

Re: When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

#143

I seem to have found a video of a magpie funeral. They're also corvids, like crows and ravens. https://youtu.be/60Zg9sGnQf8

I am not an ornithologist, but my first impression is that it isn't a "funeral". Birds do occasionally hit stuff and this seems more like a response to a possibly unconscious bird. Poke it, yell a bunch, maybe it'll come to. When the bird is actually dead the instinctive response is prolonged?

Re: When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

#144
post #110
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I assume these were crows who had forever lived > in urban areas and probably never been shot at > let alone seen a gun. Easy explanation for this that's probably correct: - Your assumption that crows don't range outside the urban area is false. - It would have only taken one crow in the group to be familiar with a gun - That single individual recognizing it and flying off in a panic triggers the rest to fly off, a…

My assumption might be false. It doesn't necessarily have to be false. Our urban area is fairly large. I agree it would take just one crow to be familiar with a gun. But at the same time, there was no displaying of the gun. The crows weren't in the immediate vicinity. They were mostly on the trees two houses away. The recognition that I had brought out a dangerous object took just a few seconds from the moment I step…

Are there large urban areas that don't have large numbers of air rifles? Likewise, are there young people who, upon acquiring an air rifle, don't immediately shoot at birds with it?

Both scenarios are implausibly contrary to my experience.

Re: When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

#147
This may sound weird, but in the country (rural Virginia) we already kind of knew this.

If you had a farm and crows get in your crops, the solution was to shoot a crow and leave it. The rest of the crows would stay and circle, but they would leave the crops alone.

* Not advocating violence against animals. Just sharing that tidbit.

Re: When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

#148
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What most people don't realize is that most live forms lower on the chain can read our minds. So if the crow's reaction was different based on what you wanted to throw, it's because it knew what you wanted to do before you did it. It was reading your thoughts. Dogs and cats do it too. A few years ago I went to a farm to buy a goat. The younger goats did not know why I was there, but when an older goat saw me and our…

Don't downvote, it's true. Animals can read your thoughts. The mechanism seems to be that they can see your visualizations: I can call my sister's cat in from outside "telepathically" by clearly "seeing" in my mind's eye the cat walking in the back door and "sending" the imagery to him. Sometimes the if the back door is closed and I'm not distracted by computer or something he "calls" me to open the door. Subjectivel…

No, I'm sorry, you got this wrong. When you do that, you are not "calling" the cat, you are effectively controlling it with your mind eye. You need to be very careful with that, doing it long term can result in damage to the cat.

Re: When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

#149
post #124

A VERY timely article for me. About a month ago here in Silicon Valley, I noticed that a crow had been violently torn apart and the pieces scattered all over my backyard lawn. I assume the killer was a raccoon--another improbably intelligent animal. How those fat, little ninjas do what they do is beyond me, but one had apparently caught a crow. A few hours after I noticed the carnage, I grabbed a paper grocery bag an…

[They stayed up there and screeched the whole time I was cleaning up (maybe ten minutes).] I probably would have went inside and left the remains to nature. I commend your bravery. It seems like a squad of crows could do some real damage to a person. Also, I can confirm that raccoons are very intelligent. They're basically like dogs but with more "street smarts". I learned this after trying to get one to leave my att…

Yup, raccoons faeces can spread several problems: Bayliscaris and other roundworms, Leptospira and some viruses. Airborne spreading rabies from faeces is very rare, but some cases were reported with bats in caves, so should be also a veeeery small probability with raccoons.

Droppings from crows and other birds can spread Parrot fever on the other hand.

Sun rays eliminate several of those problems, like Leptospira. Droppings in the garden should be more "clean" than in your attic.

Re: When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015)

#150
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So can mouse poop, but it's extraordinarily rare so no one really worries about it, well no one sane. Err present company excluded ;) http://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/hps/ It's rare enough that individual cases end up on TV.

I took a wilderness survival course in college that included multiple days in the wilderness for the final. In over 40 years there had only been two deaths. One was dehydration due to a stupid fad diet and the other was hantavirus. It looks like the flu until it's too late. So if you are around mice droppings and get flu like symptoms soon after, get to a doctor soon.

Hantaviruses and arenaviruses are typical of rodents if I'm not wrong. Rodents are everywhere, so having raccoons shouldn't really make a difference.
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