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Crows can remember a dangerous person and tell their friends about it. From "Social learning spreads knowledge about dangerous humans among American crows" (htt
by smurda 19d ago
Crows can remember a dangerous person and tell their friends about it. From "Social learning spreads knowledge about dangerous humans among American crows" (https://faculty.washington.edu/wirsinga/Cornell2011.pdf https://faculty.washington.edu/wirsinga/Cornell2011.pdf)
We exposed wild crows to a novel ‘dangerous face’ by wearing a unique mask as we trapped, banded and released 7 –15 birds at five study sites near Seattle, WA, USA. An immediate scolding response to the dangerous mask after trapping by previously captured crows demonstrates individual learning, while an immediate response by crows that were not captured probably represents conditioning to the trapping scene by the mob of birds that assembled during the capture. Later recognition of dangerous masks by lone crows that were never captured is consistent with horizontal social learning. Independent scolding by young crows, whose parents had conditioned them to scold the dangerous mask, demonstrates vertical social learning.
- tescreal 19d agoWhat does scolding look like in crows? Sincere question.
- noelwelsh 19d agoProbably sounds like more than looks like. If it's what my cat gets, it's crows posting up on trees and roofs and talking shit at you.
- tescreal 19d agoUsually I find them demanding me give them food. Shame on me for forgetting snacks!
- oasisbob 19d agoExtreme example, but it's harsh, noisy and they'll sometimes aggressively swoop down at you. https://youtu.be/RuOVY4r9ipg https://youtu.be/RuOVY4r9ipg
- cineticdaffodil 19d ago[dead]
- UI_at_80x24 19d agoAnd most importantly they teach their offspring about the dangers!
- kobalsky 19d agoThis is tangential but our monk parakeets make a special sound when they see something they don't like. We have learned to identify it, and hilarously, our dogs did too. Now when they see something weird (recently, a bird of prey in street light they saw through the window) they sound the alarm and the dogs go absolutely crazy.
- vanderZwan 19d ago> and hilarously, our dogs did too. Tangent to your tangent, but this is one reason why a guard llama works so well together with guard dogs for protecting livestock. A llama is much more alert to potential danger than, say, sheep. Which actually is an understatement: sheep have the added problem of not making any noises when attacked or eaten by predators, and therefore not alerting guard dogs. Dogs can teach themselves to interpret the llama's body language and pro-actively chase away coyotes or foxes or whatever it is that the llama spotted. I've seen this in action on a family friend's sheep farm. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guard_llama https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guard_llama
- veunes 19d agoThat is fascinating. The parakeets are basically providing an early warning system, and the dogs have figured out enough of their "language" to subscribe to it.
- card_zero 19d agoThere's a more complicated example with fork-tailed drongos and meerkats. The drongos can mimic the meerkat alarm calls in order to panic them at strategic moments (and swoop in to take food), along with a high percentage of genuinely helpful alarm calls to keep them malleable.
- devilbunny 18d agoMy in-laws had a Chihuahua as the alert dog and a Doberman as the guard dog. Yip yip yip WOOF WOOF WOOF. Took the Dobie on a lot of walks in natural areas where sketchy people were around. Funny enough, nobody tries anything when you have an 85-lb/40 kg dog. They saw me put her on a leash when I saw them and they knew I could just drop it.
- veunes 19d agoWhat gets me is that it is not just "crows remember faces". Apparently the information can outlive the original encounter entirely. You can end up on the neighborhood crow blacklist without some of the crows ever having met you before.
- Melatonic 19d agoApparently they can also tell other crows if they like you. Or their car. There's reports of them chasing off other birds away from people they like (and their vehicle or house).