It may have been inevitable that someone would film a documentary on bird behavior Hitchcock style. Crows are a perfect candidate, let's face it. And there's some beautiful corvid footage here. I have to say, though, that if you carry a taxidermied crow through the park while wearing a mask that suggests you want to go to Texas and get down to some chainsaw massacrin', it won't just be birds having a weird reaction.
2 comments:
That was a pretty intense video, wasn't it? I remember watching a short documentary a few years ago about the professor at the U of Seattle messing with crows that way. I thought at the time it was pretty mean but I guess the research has a point.. as in, don't trust people.
Crows are undeniably bright (although with some nasty habits). When we lived in Halifax there was one particular group/family that was quite entertaining. One bird we called 'Hoppy' was a favorite because he'd dance when he saw us coming down the road (naturally, we carried peanuts for them and the tiny red squirrels).
That went on for several years until eventually there was a splinter group that would accost us at the top of the road. I'd give them a few peanuts but my small donation didn't satisfy them and they took to flying at our heads, sometimes hitting us. So one afternoon I stopped when they showed up and told them they weren't getting any more. Naturally, they didn't cease immediately but after a few more days they gave up. Hoppy and his family still got their nuts.
We're the only species currently on the planet that has the time and inclination to run experiments like this. If you want to say that makes us less trustworthy, I guess I can't say you're wrong.
It's neat that you made friends with one of the crows you saw in Halifax. The thing of carrying peanuts is an idea I might want to try one of these days. Of course I should brace myself. Sometimes you see a lot of them at in the same place and the same time. Being surrounded by them can be an intense experience.
And it sounds like you learned that not all of them play nice. Duly noted. I'm glad that Hoppy made out all right. He made a couple of friends too.
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