20 ms·
Chasing a bird of lesser intelligence so that it slams into an office building window seems especially cruel.
by tejohnso 4mo ago
Chasing a bird of lesser intelligence so that it slams into an office building window seems especially cruel.
- fortran77 4mo agoBirds chase coyotes so they slam into the sides of cliff walls, sometimes even painting a fake tunnel to fool the coyote.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- tialaramex 4mo agoI believe that canonically the tunnel painting is made by the coyote, the problem is that because it's a cartoon the bird can run into the non-existent tunnel anyway and the coyote cannot because that's funnier. It is interesting that e.g. "Coyote time" was copied into platform games but in real life if you're not stood on solid ground you fall immediately 'cos Mother Nature doesn't give a shit what's more fun.
- trick-or-treat 4mo agoMother Nature isn't in charge of gravity. That's Papa Physics' job.
- ragazzina 4mo ago>Birds chase coyotes Does the bird ever even acknowledges the coyote?
- GJim 4mo agoIt does beep at it.
- wavemode 4mo agoA lot of crow hunting stories feel cruel to read about, though I wonder why that is. There is something about intelligence that seems to carry a degree of... moral responsibility, somehow? Though in reality it's just an animal eating another animal, as ever.
- avadodin 4mo agoHumans used to hunt animals by chasing them into pits and then punching holes into them with sticks until they bled out not to mention the many kinds of horrible traps for smaller prey animals. Humane hunting is mostly something that only a rich old guy with his night vision goggles and sniper rifle can afford. Even for farm animals, many cultures perform their sacrifice in ghastly ways.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- bee_rider 4mo agoMaybe something like this: Most animals hunt in a way that minimizes their odds of getting hurt, to the best of their ability. Crows are pretty smart, and not very strong in the grand scheme of things. So they engage in tactics that look like cruel manipulative pranks; causing the prey to somehow kill itself or get killed by something stronger. In the end, I think a gazelle doesn’t look up at the lion that killed it by outrunning it and the snapping its neck and say “Ah well, got me fair and square!”
- technothrasher 4mo ago> a gazelle doesn’t look up at the lion that killed it by outrunning it and the snapping its neck I know this is tangential to your point, but lions don't really hunt that way. They ambush, as they could never outrun a gazelle, and then they don't snap its neck unless unintentionally. They tend to just start eating it while it is still alive. It's quite brutal to watch.
- phyzome 4mo agoHow is it so different from, I don't know, directly grabbing it and tearing it apart? There are only so many ways they have to kill something (or injure it enough to allow killing it).
- zavec 4mo agoIt definitely seems brutal, but when I stop and think about it it's actually probably more humane for the prey than getting eaten alive, right?