251–260 of 443 posts
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One theory I heard on cats leaving dead things for you is that they think of you as a non-effective cat that needs help killin things, similar to a mom cat teaching kittens to hunt.
Wonder what one can do to "prove themselves", perhaps let the cat witness them catch something? Sounds like a great research subject.
Additionally, there was a thread on here some time ago[1] by a Dutch Startup[2] about trying to teach crows to exchange cigarette butts for treats inside a tiny device place in parks, I always thought that was a funny idea if you could get the crows to teach one another.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZerUbHmuY04
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They 'bomb' the street with walnuts where i live to open them. That's smart but not that impressive. What's impressive is - they don't do it on the parking lots where cars rarely drive, nor on the main road where cars drive constantly. They target pedestrian crossing near the main road, wait for cars to crack the walnut, then eat it. They understand where the perfect number of cars is gonna be.
Could also just be trial and error.
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A wild untrained human animal isn't that bright. We can probably operate above the crow level, but maybe not by much. What makes us special is persistent collective learning and abstract communication. Unlike animals, generations of humans don't have to keep re-solving the same problems. As a species we have cumulative persistent memory for techniques and abstractions. That's the real game changer. But it took a surp…
> A wild untrained human animal isn't that bright. We can probably operate above the crow level, but maybe not by much. That's such a misanthropic statement I don't even know where to begin. Just sticking to the kinds of structures a human and a crow can build in the wild, it's still obvious to the untrained observer that the human is well beyond the crow in terms of intelligence.
We depend more on our collective intelligence and teachings than you think.
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Canada Geese not Canadian :)
Where are you from? I've never heard anyone say Canada Geese.
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Cats tend to bring gifts too. My grandmother used to receive that of dead moles, freshly caught mice and what have you, invariably placed dead center on her pillow. She wasn't a fan of that cat before, and she didn't like it much better after. No idea why.
Cats are responsible for killing up to 25 billion animals annually and have directly contributed to the extinction of at least 33 different species. Growing up our family cat brought us a constant stream of rabbits, birds, and moles. It is actually a problem that nobody talks about, because cats are cute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_predation_on_wildlife
Crows are known to give "presents" to humans they like, such as dropping small pieces of metal they picked up, or worms. Also, crows have very rich tribal behaviours going on. There's a town close to mine called Husum (in North Germany) where there's a multi-year battle going on between crows in the park. You immediately notice it by the noise, and in fact by dead crows lying on the ground.
I wonder if this kind of behavior is connected to the etymology of the term "murder of crows".
Crows are known to give "presents" to humans they like, such as dropping small pieces of metal they picked up, or worms. Also, crows have very rich tribal behaviours going on. There's a town close to mine called Husum (in North Germany) where there's a multi-year battle going on between crows in the park. You immediately notice it by the noise, and in fact by dead crows lying on the ground.