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

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

#151

Post by jandrese »

goda90 wrote: post #133
krashnburn200 wrote: post #130

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.

If you are out in the wilderness you are always around rodent droppings. Hantavirus is one of those things that backpacking magazines freak out about, but it's so incredibly rare that there's basically no point in wasting brain cells worrying about it. It's down in the "act of God" ways you might die (meteor strike, lightning, etc...).

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

#152

Post by Scarblac »

Unklejoe wrote: post #132
krzrak wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You realize you're not supposed to toss around garbage in the national park?

Here's a different perspective, which I will admit in advance is kind of ridiculous, but it makes me think... Why are humans not considered to be a part of nature? I think it’s because we consider ourselves to be more intelligent than other animals/organisms and therefore assume it to be our responsibility to actively protect nature. However, this is based on our own moral standards, which were created by us, likely…

Well, we're talking about a National Park. Which is a part of nature we explicitly try to keep unaffected by humans as much as possible. So elsewhere you may have an argument, but in this case any visitor influence on nature is bad.

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

#153

Post by tzs »

agumonkey wrote: post #95

Probably a ridiculous claim, but I think ants have a ant death detection system too. After being invaded, putting dead ants on the path they used to reach the food drawers made them backtrack immediately and stop using that trail altogether.

They do in fact have a death detection system.

http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2009/04/01/102601823/he...

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

#154

Post by viggity »

More anecdata - there were a bunch of crows who were harassing my elderly outdoor cat. So I grabbed my BB gun and shot one from my bedroom window. The two other companions flew off, but when I went to go dispose of the body, 6 more birds flew over to see what I was doing. Cawing at me the whole time.

I didn't want to kill the damn thing. But, our whole street was crow free for at least 2 years.

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

#155

Post by glasz »

SiVal wrote: 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…

surely the crowd would have calmed down if you buried the poor pal. but instead you threw it into the trash can. come on...

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

#156

Post by kamaal »

SiVal wrote: 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 went so berserk that I thought for sure they would swoop down and peck at me like Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds", but they didn't.

You got lucky. Here in India, crows get electrified all the time and if you try to clean up a good set of crows will peck on you.

And trust me I've been pecked once and it hurts real bad, some times it rough enough to make a person bleed.

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

#157

Post by leephillips »

beefield wrote: post #29
rosege wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theres a youtube clip of a crow solving a puzzle that little children struggle with - cant find it now as at work but dont think it would be hard to find for anyone interested

I guess you mean this: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AVaITA7eBZE

That is fascinating. But notice that the researcher makes an elementary mistake: he failed to screen himself from the bird's sight.

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

#158

Post by guptaneil »

glasz wrote: post #155
SiVal wrote: 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…

surely the crowd would have calmed down if you buried the poor pal. but instead you threw it into the trash can. come on...

Burying our dead is a primarily western culture tradition. Many other cultures prefer cremation for example. Why would the birds care how you dispose of the body?

It's possible the birds knew OP wasn't the killer and were hoping to intimidate them into leaving the body alone in hopes of catching the real killer, but that's just a guess.

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

#159

Post by btbuildem »

> For instance, in 2008 Marzluff had researchers in caveman masks capture crows while others in a control mask—Dick Cheney—let the birds be. Afterward the birds ignored the harmless Cheneys but scolded and chased the cavemen, and did so for years.

I feel like they should have swapped the masks around for this one.

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

#160

Post by zeveb »

s_kilk wrote: post #92
slavik81 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corvids (crows, ravens, magpies, jackdaws) are pretty bright. Some of them also have quite a bit of voice control. Like parrots, they can speak human words if trained. https://youtu.be/rIX_6TBeph0

This Raven speaking Finnish is pretty cool: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOVYMQP7gMM

A raven, speaking Finnish? Sounds like a bad omen!
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