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One of my all-time favorite novels, Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, includes an anecdote: a crow's call wakes up someone who's sleeping outdoors, just as a large ca

One of my all-time favorite novels, Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, includes an anecdote: a crow's call wakes up someone who's sleeping outdoors, just as a large cat (a tiger, perhaps) is sneaking up on him. One character suggests the crow was trying to warn the man. Another posits the bird was bringing the sleeper to the tiger's attention so it could enjoy the scraps after the meal.

derefr 3y ago
Odd that the most obvious hypothesis wasn't given: the crow was probably using its alarm call to warn other crows. Crows are social animals, who care about the fates of their "friends and acquaintances" — so they would do that. But also, on a tangent, there is a bird that does this kind of non-conspecific alarm calling the time as part of its food-gathering strategy: the African fork-tailed drongo. The drongo gives true alarm calls to food-rival species nearby, to tell them when it has spotted a mutual predator. This leads to these food-rival species coming to rely on these signals. But then, every once in a while, it gives a false alarm, to get the food-rivals to run away for a bit, so it can nab the bugs/berries/etc that the rival would have been eating.
- hiddencost 3y ago
  It's called an allegory
  - card_zero 3y ago
    No, a drongo.
- thaumasiotes 3y ago
  There's also an African bird whose foraging strategy includes alerting large mammals to the presence of food that they can harvest and the bird can scavenge. In fact, there is a family of such birds, the honeywarblers, who locate beehives, then find humans and lead them to the beehives. Wikipedia says that the behavior is dying out because there aren't enough human foragers.
jmprspret 3y ago
There is another Neil Gaiman short story about a cat who goes gallivanting every night and comes back every morning all scuffed up. The owners don't know why since there aren't any other cats around. One night the owner can't sleep and discovers the reason. Don't want to spoil. It's nice and short and a must-read for cat lovers. "The Price". http://www.bitchwick.com/amacker/bean/price.html http://www.bitchwick.com/amacker/bean/price.html
- melodyogonna 3y ago
  Good read
- herodoturtle 3y ago
  That was a terrifyingly poignant read, thank you.

derefr 3y ago

Odd that the most obvious hypothesis wasn't given: the crow was probably using its alarm call to warn other crows. Crows are social animals, who care about the fates of their "friends and acquaintances" — so they would do that. But also, on a tangent, there is a bird that does this kind of non-conspecific alarm calling the time as part of its food-gathering strategy: the African fork-tailed drongo. The drongo gives true alarm calls to food-rival species nearby, to tell them when it has spotted a mutual predator. This leads to these food-rival species coming to rely on these signals. But then, every once in a while, it gives a false alarm, to get the food-rivals to run away for a bit, so it can nab the bugs/berries/etc that the rival would have been eating.

hiddencost 3y ago
It's called an allegory
- card_zero 3y ago
  No, a drongo.
thaumasiotes 3y ago
There's also an African bird whose foraging strategy includes alerting large mammals to the presence of food that they can harvest and the bird can scavenge. In fact, there is a family of such birds, the honeywarblers, who locate beehives, then find humans and lead them to the beehives. Wikipedia says that the behavior is dying out because there aren't enough human foragers.

jmprspret 3y ago

There is another Neil Gaiman short story about a cat who goes gallivanting every night and comes back every morning all scuffed up. The owners don't know why since there aren't any other cats around. One night the owner can't sleep and discovers the reason. Don't want to spoil. It's nice and short and a must-read for cat lovers. "The Price". http://www.bitchwick.com/amacker/bean/price.html http://www.bitchwick.com/amacker/bean/price.html

melodyogonna 3y ago
Good read
herodoturtle 3y ago
That was a terrifyingly poignant read, thank you.