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To 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 t
by seszett 7y ago
To 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.
- archi42 7y agoThat's strength in numbers. I saw two crows trying this against an eagle,... I think they only survived that because the eagle was too lazy and figured it was easier to just grab some trainer-provided food after the show. Mind, the crows probably didn't recognize the huge bird, since they're not native here. That one "belonged" to a small wildlife reservoir. The trainer said it was more like he agreed to stay there in exchange for free lunch; which meant after a show the bird would occasionally hit the road for a few days, if he felt like it.
- rapnie 7y agoThere 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.
- orthoxerox 7y agoWell, a bald eagle is a glorified seagull, a golden eagle would've fared better.
- Terr_ 7y agoKeyword: Mobbing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobbing_(animal_behavior)#In_birds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobbing_(animal_behavior)#In_b...
- djtriptych 7y agoBut to be fairer (to crows), I've witnessed crows just cross the yellow painted lines in a road to get to safety. They've adapted to our traffic rules.
- ajuc 7y agoThey '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.
- andromeduck 7y agoCould also just be trial and error.
- aerique 7y agoWhich also sums up most of human history.
- ubertakter 7y agoNormally I try not to contribute useless comments, but I found this to be a particularly hilarious, laughing-out-loud at my desk observation.
- zentiggr 7y ago"... and has widely been considered a bad idea." Thanks, Douglas Adams :)
- gh43weah43ew 7y agoExploration vs exploitation in action.
- CPLX 7y ago
- tempguy9999 7y agoRabbits are prey animals. I don't think(?) crows are. Prey animals are wary and startle easily to reduce their chance of becoming lunch.
- philipov 7y agoBy that logic, they shouldn't be running towards the car that's gonna eat them.
- ajuc 7y agoThey try to be stealthy and when the car is still going at them they run diagonally towards it, to make it turn and lose momentum. It's a good strategy vs bigger heavy predators, just not vs cars.
- londons_explore 7y agoMost fast animals can't change direction easily. Running in almost any direction is an effective means of escape. Cars are much wider than most predators, meaning many directions end up being bad choices.
- S_A_P 7y agoThe 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.
- perl4ever 7y agoI 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.
- 7y ago