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The Greater Honeyguide, a Bird That Understands Humans
- paloaltokid 10y agoAnother amazing bird worth knowing about is the Lyrebird: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y It copies not just the songs of other birds, but man-made sounds as well! Check out the link, it's mindblowing.
- sohkamyung 10y agoUnfortunately, it may not quite be true [1]. The lyrebirds that mimic the man-made sounds are not wild ones but filmed at a zoo. So far, there hasn't been recordings of wild lyrebirds mimicking human-made sounds. I'm a David Attenborough fan, but in the interest of accuracy, this has to be made known. That video segment was made in the older days of natural history documentary where some artistic license was taken. [1] "Lyrebirds mimicking chainsaws: fact or lie?" [ https://theconversation.com/lyrebirds-mimicking-chainsaws-fact-or-lie-22529 https://theconversation.com/lyrebirds-mimicking-chainsaws-fa... ]
- Intermernet 10y agoThere are lyrebirds at the bottom of Bungonia gorge that accurately mimic the sound of people walking with racks of climbing gear. I've heard them many times. Only one point of anecdata, but I'm convinced they'll attempt to mimic any sound they're exposed to for long enough. Edit: the article that you linked mentions that they have a range of metallic sounds in their vocab already, so I assume they've just copied the pitches and patterns distinctive to people walking with a trad rack. Still off-putting when you hear it for hours and the entire gorge can be traversed in about 20 minutes and is completely visible from a couple of pitches up a climb. You tend to assume that there's another climbing party aimlessly wandering in circles just out of sight!
- efnx 10y agoI used to hear mocking birds mimicking car alarms when I lived in LA.
- dominotw 10y agooh my god! I am totally blow away by this. Thank you for posting this.
- mei0Iesh 10y agoA bird kills other birds in the nest, then leads humans to annihilate bee nests? This thing is pure evil.
- aforty 10y agoAnd thus the understanding of humans.
- stuaxo 10y agoThis reminded me of Werner Herzogs talk on nature (in the jungle this time) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjjnZvtwtqA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjjnZvtwtqA "...there is a lot of misery, the same misery that is all around us.."
- wavefunction 10y agoThe humans are the ones annihilating bee nests. The bird is just opportunistic. Perhaps you mean that humans are pure evil, given the other ways we treat animals and plants and other living things in this, our only home.
- akaralar 10y agothere was also a part about this in BBCs Human Planet series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpsdPSkfkGw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpsdPSkfkGw
- carapace 10y agoI don't remember now where I read it, but crows will lead hunters to game. There was a certain signal the hunters would give to tell the crow that they were hunting, and the crow would fly over the game and dip its wing in a certain way to let the hunters know where it was without tipping it off.