4 ms·
One day I was out walking by the water. A small bird was standing on a rock, apparently unable to fly. Crows were gathering and preparing to feast. I tried to s
by bdamm 5y ago
One day I was out walking by the water. A small bird was standing on a rock, apparently unable to fly. Crows were gathering and preparing to feast. I tried to scare them off, and sat by the little bird to prevent them from eating it. Silly, but it seemed right to me. The crows were not impressed. They became more daring, and eventually I decided to leave. A trio of crows broke off from the group and followed me all the way home, perhaps a mile's distance. They flew from branch to branch as I walked, with the tail crow moving to the lead every time. The tactical pattern continued the entire time.
Maybe it was just me, but for months I could have sworn there were crows out sounding the alarm whenever I left my apartment.
Bears are another animal that seem to recognize individuals and take offences personally.
- zmgsabst 5y agoCrows are capable of identifying and remembering individual humans. https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/science/26crow.html https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/science/26crow.html There’s a delicate balance to be struck if you live in a neighborhood with a large crow population and also like to pet neighborhood cats — and like most of life, bribes go a long way to lubricate the peace.
- 2muchcoffeeman 5y agoStories like this make me wonder if increased jerkiness is an unfortunate side effect of increased intelligence. You need to be able to recognise the individual and put yourself in their shoes and imagine what would annoy the target and then execute your plan.
- sph 5y agoThey might be intelligent as us, but I have a hard time putting myself in a crow's shoes (?), so I don't expect them to be able to think like a human either.
- colechristensen 5y agoOne of the things they do in the wild is harass a larger predator so they can steal some of its prey, seems like what was going on to you. They'll pull a canine's tail while it's trying to eat to distract it for example.