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Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates

bbc.com

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Re: Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates

#191

Post by harimau777 »

jayd16 wrote: post #118
burtonator wrote: post #6

Crows are amazingly intelligent animals. My GF and I went to the beach about a month ago and took our dog. The crows weren't frightened at ALL of our dog. They realized they could basically just 'float' up in the air when he came by using the breeze. The fact that they were amazingly calm about it was really telling. Second. We hid our stuff under a blanket. They realize it's still there as they have item persistence…

Gulls are pretty smart too. I've seen a flock case out a tourist as they set up their beach blanket. Once the tourist turns their back, they swoop in. I've seen a one pull a closed brown lunch bag out of a freshly opened backpack, meaning the knew backpacks probably have food and brown bags are worth stealing and inspecting in detail elsewhere.

I was at a beach where I was younger where people routinely fed the fish dog food. The fish had learned to recognize this and would swarm the person feeding them. The gulls in turn would actually step on the fish to get to the food.

Clearly, gulls are the honey badger of the bird world!

Re: Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates

#194

Post by harimau777 »

Not directly related, but some other bird behaviors that I find fascinating:

Shrike (A.K.A. butcher birds) are predatory but since they are song birds they don't have talons to rip apart prey into manageable bites. Instead they impale their pray on thorns or barbed wire so that they can tear off bits with their beaks. They also use this to store food and have been known to use this to wait until the poison in certain insects degrades. During mating season, the number of carcasses that a male shrike has hung up is used to demonstrate its fitness to females.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpRcc5jvRmQ

Killdeer nest on the ground, so when a predator approaches the nest the mother attempts to lead them away by pretending to have a broken wing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJTt5I8K4Rk

Re: Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates

#197

Post by rapnie »

DagAgren wrote: post #175
classified wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you forgetting the birds of prey?

Where I live, an island right by the mainland, birds of prey are not allowed. If one shows up, the crows will all take to the air, maybe fifty to a hundred of them, and will yell and chase the bird of prey until it leaves the island. Once it is over water, they will give a few last screams and turn around and go back to their business. I've seen a bird of prey try to dive and swoop low over the land to evade them. Th…

There are many bird species that do the same. Last year in Rotterdam, Netherlands they released a trained American bald eagle from a highrise building to fly to a designated spot across the river. It never arrived there as it was attacked from all sides by other birds, mostly seagulls, and chased across the city. It took hours to find the eagle, and when they did the poor beast was exhausted.

Re: Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates

#198

Post by S_A_P »

philipov wrote: post #116
tempguy9999 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rabbits are prey animals. I don't think(?) crows are. Prey animals are wary and startle easily to reduce their chance of becoming lunch.

By that logic, they shouldn't be running towards the car that's gonna eat them.

The reason rabbits and squirrels run into the car is because they assume it’s like other predators and not taking a path. Squirrels are trying to “juke” and anticipating that the car will respond to that.

Re: Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates

#199

Post by yawgmoth »

harimau777 wrote: post #194

Not directly related, but some other bird behaviors that I find fascinating: Shrike (A.K.A. butcher birds) are predatory but since they are song birds they don't have talons to rip apart prey into manageable bites. Instead they impale their pray on thorns or barbed wire so that they can tear off bits with their beaks. They also use this to store food and have been known to use this to wait until the poison in certain…

Shrike birds always remind me of the Shrike from Hyperion [1]. I guess the real thing inspired the character's thorny exterior.

[1] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=hyperion+shrike&ia=images&iax=imag...

Re: Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates

#200

Post by boomboomsubban »

coldtea wrote: post #163
boomboomsubban wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Irish are an ethnicity, not a race. Racism is often considered antagonism based on race or ethnicity. The terms are very closely linked, though it may have been better for me to say "ethnicity." >Not in the "X are inferior/KKK/etc" sense, which is what we should be concerned with So what grudges do you think the Irish held leading to this stereotype? I don't get the rest of your argument. It seems to be "my country…

> I don't get the rest of your argument. It seems to be "my country doesn't have a problem with racism so racist comments are fine." It's more "A culture that has historically had heavy racism problems should not export their overcompensating hysteria that everything touching on ethnicity/race is racism and consider its own preoccupations universally applicable". > So what grudges do you think the Irish held leading…

>It's more...

I'm curious where you're from that you think doesn't have a similar history, but it still boils down to "if you don't have a racism problem it's not actually racist." I don't get that logic, you can argue it's not harmful but it's still racism.

>Why not ask the Irish themselves?

I find it strange that all the Irish you are asking are speaking English, but the Irish Times hits why this is offensive.

>Well, Brian, the record so far is a whopping 800 years: this being the period, rounded down to the nearest century, for which we claim to have been oppressed by the English.

Everything else listed is fairly standard, and you could make similar articles for any ethnicity.

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