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We have crows and jackrabbits in our neighborhood. You drive down the road toward a bunch (I think they prefer the term "murder") of crows having a meeting in t
by SiVal 7y ago
We have crows and jackrabbits in our neighborhood. You drive down the road toward a bunch (I think they prefer the term "murder") of crows having a meeting in the middle of the road. They'll eventually start nonchalantly strolling to the side at a calm, measured pace perfectly timed to just barely get out of the way as you pass and stroll back again, no feathers ruffled.
Jackrabbits will be sitting safely in the grass on the side of the road, see you coming, watch until you're about to pass, have a panic attack, and sprint in front of your car just as you pass in order to "escape". I never slow down for crows. They know what they're doing. I slow down for my fellow mammals, jackrabbits, because they're nitwits. All I can say, looking at these birds and these rabbits, is: that asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs and took out the competition sure was a lucky break for us.
- interfixus 7y agoOh yes! I live in a mostly rural area with lots of roaming fauna. Deer, hares, hedgehogs, cats of course, martens, rodents, foxes, all kinds of birds. Both when driving privately and when at work as a bus driver, I am observant and conscientious about all this wildlife: The roads are full of roadkill, which both saddens and angers me - but none of it is mine; I keep my eyes on the road, and I slow down for everybody. Except for the crows and the rooks. I keep an eye on them, and keep a foot poised for braking, but I never have to. They stroll, as you describe it, quite nonchalantly out the way, sometimes leaving a walnut for my vehicle to please crush. And here's the thing: They happily stroll into the opposite lane, if - and only if - no cars are approaching from the opposite direction. Complete grasp of the traffic situation, and they hardly ever fail - during the last year, I have seen one dead crow at the roadside; I'm gessing he took cool one step to far.
- seszett 7y agoTo be fair though, birds have had to adapt long ago to evaluating the movement of very fast moving objects, while rabbits and most mammals have not really had to cope with fast speeds until humans invented cars just a century ago.
- tjchear 7y agoPredators like lions and cheetahs achieve top speeds comparable to a car driving on freeway tho.
- GarvielLoken 7y agoFor a whole like 8 seconds before it's nap time
- anticensor 7y agoAnd once a day only. If you fail, you starve until the next day.
- zentiggr 7y agoBut that's ambush style... cover, creep, approach, then burst, startle, takedown. Or go hungry.
- classified 7y agoAre you forgetting the birds of prey?
- oblio 7y agoWell, in his defense, so do rabbits, most of the time :-p
- barrkel 7y agoStaying still (minimizing visibility through motion detection) and then moving at the last moment is better avoidance strategy for a bird of prey, unless there's an actual hole they can disappear down.
- DagAgren 7y agoWhere 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. They'll follow, some diving down low after it and some at a distance to keep an eye on it, until it's gone. We basically have a crow air force keeping all the other birds and little mammals safe.
- sean-duffy 7y agoPigeons do the exact same though, I never slow down for them because I know they always fly out of the way just in time, even when it looks like you're about to roll over them.
- jgraham 7y agoPigeons have been trained to discriminate between different styles of art [1], which suggests complex, adaptable, visual processing and skill retention. So they may not be a great example of a bird that can only exhibit simple behaviours. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1334394/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1334394/
- pepy 7y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPCZtrac-Ss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPCZtrac-Ss
- aspaviento 7y agoWell, you should. Pigeons can have an illness or fights that make them loose some toes and because of this, they can walk slowly or not react as fast as the others. One day I saw one on the street while a truck was comming fast towards it. I heard pretty clear a "plop" sound, like the sound of a bag exploding. I just hear it because I didn't want to look at it. It's not the kind of image you want to remember.
- mark-r 7y agoI still remember seeing a bird die when I was a small child. The bird was in the street right next to an intersection, and a car made a right turn at the intersection and caught the bird unaware.
- iainmerrick 7y agoI thought the same until I almost got a pigeon trapped in my bicycle pedal! It got dragged along for several seconds before it managed to flap away. Not one of the bright ones, I guess.
- harimau777 7y agoOn the other hand, if you are out driving and there's a flock of Canadian Geese walking across the road, try only slowing down to 5 to 10 mph. They are used to people stopping until they finish crossing so they freak out when you don't. Note: I generally do not advocate purposely messing with animals, but geese are evil! Also don't do this if there are young that might not be able to get out of the way in time.
- kldavis4 7y agoCanada Geese not Canadian :)
- boatswain 7y agoWhat if they are from Canada? Are they Canadian Canada Geese?
- Tyr42 7y agoWe put all our fill will into the geese, then send them south for the winter to let it all out. It's how we maintain our niceness. Might have had some side effects though.
- billly 7y agoWhere are you from? I've never heard anyone say Canada Geese.