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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

#361

Post by [deleted] »

hailk wrote: post #344
derefr wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So we'd go out in the morning and my grandfather would call out "Jack" and the Dog would come running down the yard, and then next thing you'd see the crow hopping down the yard after the dog. Tangent: this is a handy effect, if you could get it to work, but it’s a bit surprising if it did work: animals have different audible frequency ranges, and, obviously, they’ll only respond to a name they can hear. Dogs and c…

Also, cats aren't as social as either dogs or crows (collaborative hunting wise). Cats not coming when summoned is a very common thing, even when they recognise their names.

[deleted]

Re: Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates

#362

Post by peterashford »

jointpdf wrote: post #321
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…

I wonder how kea ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kea ) compared to crows in terms of intelligence. I’ve heard those things are more than capable of breaking into vehicles.

I remember seeing a program a while back which was comparing crows and kea and they concluded the kea was marginally smarter. Although, of course, that's related to the specific test they set - different tests might yield different results. They definitely are smart, tho

Re: Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates

#363

Post by peterashford »

thrownblown wrote: post #304
gricardo99 wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> flock of crows This is called a murder of crows. I've always found that term odd, and it seems derogatory. I don't know the origin.

and multiple ravens are referred to as a "conspiracy" whereas a group of owls is a "parliament" and gather several vultures and you get a "venue" I recently heard this used in a podcast and I got distracted by the term and looked up all this nonsense. TIL multiple jellyfish are a "smack"!

Collective nouns are linguistic bullshit made up by people who want to excel at pub quizzes. I hate them :o)

Re: Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates

#364

Post by Phrenzy »

bananamerica wrote: post #320
dta3456 wrote: post #139

When I was a child, I'd spend a lot of time at my grandfathers farm, and one summer he took in an injured crow that hurt its wing. For some strange reason, he named all of his animals Jack, cats, dogs and now crows. So we'd go out in the morning and my grandfather would call out "Jack" and the Dog would come running down the yard, and then next thing you'd see the crow hopping down the yard after the dog. It would ar…

Your grandpa sounds like a great guy.

Who, Jack? Yeah, he's a great guy.

Re: Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates

#365

Post by thedailymail »

dobleboble wrote: post #331
klenwell wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a wonderful story. My only New Year's resolution this year was to befriend a crow. So far, no progress. Maybe next year.

This is also a goal of mine. I have read that they like peanuts still in the shell.

There was a documentary in Japan a few years ago that showed local crows going absolutely crazy for mayonnaise. (Ketchup, on the other hand, they had zero interest in.)

Re: Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates

#366

Post by perl4ever »

dta3456 wrote: post #139

When I was a child, I'd spend a lot of time at my grandfathers farm, and one summer he took in an injured crow that hurt its wing. For some strange reason, he named all of his animals Jack, cats, dogs and now crows. So we'd go out in the morning and my grandfather would call out "Jack" and the Dog would come running down the yard, and then next thing you'd see the crow hopping down the yard after the dog. It would ar…

This made me think, what is a jackdaw? Turns out...it's a kind of crow.

Re: Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates

#367

Post by perl4ever »

S_A_P wrote: post #198
philipov wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I have to think that over time squirrels must be evolving due to cars. I do see dead ones, but I often see them running across the road, and notably not zigzagging. They still don't seem to have a sense of how close and how fast a car is moving though. I've seen a coyote not only assess the trajectory of my car, but change its mind about crossing the road in front of me once I demonstrated I had no traction in the snow.

Re: Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates

#368

Post by zozbot234 »

perl4ever wrote: post #366
dta3456 wrote: post #139

When I was a child, I'd spend a lot of time at my grandfathers farm, and one summer he took in an injured crow that hurt its wing. For some strange reason, he named all of his animals Jack, cats, dogs and now crows. So we'd go out in the morning and my grandfather would call out "Jack" and the Dog would come running down the yard, and then next thing you'd see the crow hopping down the yard after the dog. It would ar…

This made me think, what is a jackdaw? Turns out...it's a kind of crow.

Here's the thing. You said a "jackdaw is a kind of crow."

Is it in the same family? Yes. No one's arguing that.

Ask someone who is a scientist who studies crows, and he'll tell you, specifically, in science, no one calls jackdaws crows. If you want to be specific, then you shouldn't either. They're not the same thing.

If you're saying "crow family" you're referring to the taxonomic grouping of Corvidae, which includes things from nutcrackers to blue jays to ravens.

So your reasoning for calling a jackdaw a crow is because random people call the black ones crows? Let's get grackles and blackbirds in there, then, too.

Also, calling someone a human or an ape? It's not one or the other, that's not how taxonomy works. They're both. A jackdaw is a jackdaw and a member of the crow family. But that's not what you said. You said a jackdaw is a crow, which is not true unless you're okay with calling all members of the crow family crows, which means you'd call blue jays, ravens, and other birds crows, too. Which you probably don't!

It's okay to admit you're wrong, you know?

Re: Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates

#369

Post by perl4ever »

zozbot234 wrote: post #368
perl4ever wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This made me think, what is a jackdaw? Turns out...it's a kind of crow.

Here's the thing. You said a "jackdaw is a kind of crow." Is it in the same family? Yes. No one's arguing that. Ask someone who is a scientist who studies crows, and he'll tell you, specifically, in science, no one calls jackdaws crows. If you want to be specific, then you shouldn't either. They're not the same thing. If you're saying "crow family" you're referring to the taxonomic grouping of Corvidae, which include…

I'm sorry, are you having an argument with someone about jackdaws in a parallel universe?

If you want to have one with me, you've got to...ease into it.

Re: Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates

#370

Post by cwkoss »

When I lived in a second floor apartment, I trained the crows to sit on a particular spot of the fence below my balcony.

First, I would just throw nuts for them (they liked cashews best). Then, I gradually shaped their behavior by only throwing nuts when they were standing on then fence, then eventually only when they were standing on a particular spot of the fence.

Took about 3 months, was pretty fun.

Then, they started cawing to ask for nuts. They were in the right spot, why wasn't I coming out onto the balcony to give nuts? Had to ignore them for a while to avoid reinforcing their habit of demanding. Crows have no concept of weekend mornings being sacred sleep-in time and I didn't want to piss off the neighbors.

I'd like to train crows again, but I'm not sure of a good way to avoid them becoming demanding again. Also, they were much more comfortable picking up nuts when I was stuck on balcony, they seem fairly wary when offered food on the same level as a human.

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