The Crow Whisperer: What happens when we talk to animals?
harpers.org
harpers.org
Neither will speak on command, but they both will speak and mimic sounds. One does a ringtone sort of sound, and says "caw, caw" in a very human voice (presumably mimicking people mimicking crows). One will say "American Crow" every so often.
I managed to get a recording once: https://drive.google.com/file/d/109wzdIsVW7hZwX1-8M3IioUMr49...
The crow in the recording lives at Brukner Nature Center[1] near Troy, OH.
If you guys love places like that, check out the Sugarcreek Bird Farm in Bellbrook[1], not too far from where you are. It's a third generation run store and part time bird rescue[2] dedicated to parrots and some other larger birds (African Crow and a Toucan are some of their non parrots). They also breed and sell some, but they care more about the bird's health and wellbeing than anything else. We take our green cheek conure and budgie there for grooming and boarding when we're out of town.
Most of their larger birds on display are ones they keep for themselves and have out for socialization, but they're fun to watch and play around with. They recently opened an outdoor aviary in the back of the store. On nicer days, you can step out there and get up close and personal with their Palm Cockatoo (will land on your head, but it means no harm), African Greys and some other larger parrots. Always makes me leave with a smile after observing the surprising intellect of our avian friends.
[1] https://www.sugarcreekbirdfarm.com
[2] They took in a cockatiel not long ago someone abandoned with its cage in a trash can. Sweetest little bird though that they aptly named "Treasure". Will play "peek-a-boo" with you and beg for head scratches
My previous dog (RIP, Caleb) hated crows and would bark and lunge at them on our walks. So every time we came out, one would caw out the alert and crows up the road would echo the alert to more distant crows.
The crows did the same thing with my next dog. But the first time he saw crows on the road, he did his greeting dance -- the same one he uses to try to get people or other dogs to come over to meet him.
And that was it, the crows immediately understood and stopped alerting from then on. (Not entirely a happy ending, though. The crows never did come over so Jack could meet them).
salūtat (he/she/it salutes) -> salūtā (salute!)
sedēs (you sit) -> sedē (sit!)
tacēte (be quiet, y'all!) -> tacē (be quiet!)
ambulāmus (we walk) -> ambulēmus (let's walk)She told me that she's been doing this with the crows for years - almost two decades now - and that she thinks the crows are telling their young about her, because she notices new generations over the years.
Of course, she's got treats for them - but even when they don't get treats, the crows seem to be really enamoured with her, as if she has a history of being the 'peanut giver' among the local murder.
Around 4-5 years ago, I seen a baby seagull had fallen out of it's nest into my garden so I immediately noticed seagulls for the first time. I would feed it cheap haddock cuts. At first the parents were in attack mode but I feel that eventually they accepted me. It was cool to see the baby learn to fly and the parents seemingly being involved.
Anyway although it is hard to tell by looking, each year one of the parents comes back. The only way I feel I know is because in spring if I hang my washing out, all of a sudden this seagull will land and mooch around on the grass, sometimes I have to nudge it with my foot as I go along the washing line to get it out of the way. It's pretty odd given how cagey seagulls are and it doesn't do that if I am not alone.
Edit: I feed it bits and pieces which is the reason of course, but it's nice to see the association none the less.
Anyway I call him Steve as in Steven Seagal. Hopefully it's a male.
Crows would be even more cool.
Adding the words ... investigation unit ... would completely change the tone of this 'peanut giver' message.
As people, how much of what we interpret as physical body language from each other gets translated into language in our inner monologue for a kind of narrative reasoning, which we then act on? To say that's projecting intent on others because we can't truly know someones intentions without language is ridiculous if you've ever managed to get by somewhere without knowing a language. Extending that way of relating to animals to me is absolutely viable. Especially sophisticated intelligent animals like crows.
It's a skill you can practice and develop to where strange animals will accept your presence and respond to cues. It takes practice to walk into a herd of horses in a field without them stampeding, to get panicking dogs to relax, or even to shoo off a bear. It's like shifting them out of their instinctual reactions and activating or stimulating their capacity to reason. It's also a huge element of human charisma, where if you have ever met someone who can command a room with very minor gestures, or quiet a kid in a tantrum, it's the same ability.
I think there is something universal that people can develop (or have terrible deficits in), and this crow whispering person seems to have really mastered it. What a pleasure to read.
His animal training skills are pretty remarkable if a person is OK with hundreds of dead rats. He must have the world's most well-trained dog.
It was one of the experiences that led him to his hypothesis that coöperation was a survival trait that would be preserved and spread by natural selection.
They are really social and act almost like a primate. A lot of fun to watch them interact with each other.
They will pick up one, then put it down and pick up another, and so on, sometimes going back to recheck one, until finally deciding which one to fly off with. They are quick picky.
When the last peanut is gone, sometimes I put out more. And sometimes then I'll see one or two of the jays come back, still carrying the peanuts they had from before. They will put down the old peanut they brought back, and then go through the whole selection process again.
My place has some nice trees and shrubs so I think they were already comfortable in the yard. I don’t really see many feeders elsewhere in my neighborhood but I’ve passed a few houses where I’ve noticed significant bird song and I’ve seen a few houses with bird houses.
I think a lot of it comes down to the vibe you give them. I spend a lot of time thinking about how they interpret my actions so that I don’t scare/annoy them. Small things like slow movements, not staring at them, letting them dictate the encounter, etc.
When I was a kid, old ladies would sell grain in plastic cups for people to throw to the pigeons. The moment you poured some grain on your hand, you were suddenly surrounded by a hundred birds. It was an attraction for both tourists and children. I haven't seen that practiced in a decade or more, I suppose feeding the pigeons became illegal at some point.
May be worth looking into! They suggested mixing ground-up calcium supplements into the beef.
On my morning walk into the office there’s a healthy population of Kaka, a native NZ parrot somewhat similar to the more widely known Kea. They’re the result of a successful breeding program at Zealandia, and lurk around the town belt fringes of Te Ahumairangi hill and Tinakori Rd in fair numbers.
Being a bit of a bird nut, I pay attention to their calls, locations, and behaviours and have spent a bit of time mimicking calls back to them. Quite a few times they’ve responded back and forth for a few minutes.
Interestingly, they’ve remembered this for a long time and now I get a flyover and particular call noise when I’m spotted. It doesn’t seem to matter what I’m wearing and I don’t have to look up so they’re not ID-ing by face or plumage. I have a pretty unique gait which I’m guessing is what they pick up on.
I probably shouldn’t take this any further via offerings since maintaining a distrust of humans is broadly beneficial for their long-term success, but the temptation is certainly there and my chance of success seems pretty high. Spotting a handful of seed from hundreds of yards away is a universal parrot superpower.
The point made in the article about just paying attention resonates, but of course some interest has to exist beforehand.
When COVID started, I too was desperate for something other than dire news. I went and picked up "Bark Butter Bites", which are chunks of peanut butter, corn and beef suet enriched with calcium. In short, it is ideal food for a bird. They go nuts for the stuff! I started feeding them to the crows in the neighbourhood, which is surrounded by forests.
Well, you know. It's been well over a year now. I walk 3 times a day and I have never left the house without these peanuty treats in my pocket. The crows have formed a parameter around my house and escort me everywhere. They come very close, have shown many, many examples of extreme intelligence, empathy and humour. But what's struck me is just how much social grace they possess. They have a crystal clear understanding of mutually sane boundaries. They know where I live, but will not disturb us in anyway. They show absolute and respectful care around "my nest".
One funny story is, after getting used to one of our common walking routes that breaks into a forest trail, the _entire gang_ showed up one day. We think there was a sort of meeting, as normally the locals in this spot around around 5-20. This day, there were 100+.
I took too long to notice, though, as I started dishing out food, only to realize... "Hey look! There are... 10... 15... 20... 40 --Fuuu-oh-oh -- Oh _shit_!" -- something like a crow tornado whirled through the street. And it's 7am! And they're loud!
We decide to turn back home (running), only to wind up crossing a road near a school -- relatively busy with commuter traffic, even during COVID -- and are followed by no less than 100 crows. The people in the cars and on the street are all staring, mouths agape, as two random people cross by surrounded by a cawing mass of grateful, hungry and black feathery insanity. Back again, as soon as we got very close to home... they went: "Ahhh, okay, well, bye!" and left quietly.
I love 'em.
Later I was stunned to read that Crows remember your face and can communicate your face to other Crows[1]. Thats how they can detect you for several miles in radius.
[1] https://theconversation.com/never-cross-a-crow-it-will-remem...
This kept up for days, including after a weekend when I wasn't at work, until it occurred to me to try a peace offering of potato chips from the vending machine - not the healthiest food for anyone, but the best it had to offer, and I had nothing else really to work with. After a few days of emptying a bag of chips on the grassy verge opposite the parking lot, and of conscientiously not approaching the nest again, the warning calls and surveillance flights ceased, and the crows never had a problem with me again.
I'd read previously about corvids' intelligence, but that they should have such an extensive and accurate theory of mind, for animals with whom they have so little in common, still surprised me. Hell, for all that we flatter ourselves we invented the concepts, I've known plenty of humans who grasped impropriety, apology, restitution, and forgiveness less well than those birds did.
The moment they would hear his voice, all would swoop in from various directions and start catching the pieces of bread he would toss in the air. Never saw any pieces hit the ground; no fights either. Once the pieces were gone, they would be gone too. It was a free daily aerial acrobatics show that I never got tired of watching.
So it might be the same crows...or some crows which have been told to watch out for that dog.
Crows always seem to make noises when any big animal appears, possibly to warn the others.
The best way to make a crow friend is to save one that happens to be in distress. They'll be your BFF for life.
Also: syntax! "Japanese great tits (Parus minor) have developed syntactic rules" https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10986
I have no way to say whether or not I believe it all. I generally find my opinions on things like this mean basically nothing, so I'm best off keeping my mouth shut, and enjoying the show.
I have always gotten along well with animals; even bad-tempered ones. They can definitely pick up "vibes."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFOxjyXb1x4 (Stella, a dog that's managed some obvious associations, like 'outside', 'park', and 'play')
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPC6ElzSdxM (Bunny, a dog that's learned more elaborate combinations like "where (object)" or associating "stranger" with someone walking outside)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZzJqZQpmTs (Billi, a cat that's learned some simple things like requesting pets, then pressing the "All Done" button and walking off)
I think trying communication while factoring that (things dog are interested in) might yield more interesting results.
The cat on the other hand is only interested in itself and its family member (ie. doesn't care about what's going on outside); but it also seems to change its mind constantly. It might ask for one thing, then seem to think about it and change its mind to something else and change the buttons it is pressing.
But processing the data from them is really hard. Obviously they know a lot of these words, but its when they combine them in interesting ways that you begin to wonder how deep their understanding and ability to express goes. For example Bunny might combine her meager word-set to express something that makes you wonder if what she's trying to say is more than the sum of her words, and if whether she understands it at that level.
She pushes the 'Outside' button, goes to the door and looks at the snow and slush outside, and immediately turns around and goes back in... and then a few minutes later pushes the 'Outside' button again while staring at her owner (and not actually going to the door), obviously expecting or hoping for something to happen that will 'fix' the unpleasant weather.
(Disclaimer - I enjoy eating meat. I'm not sure how I would answer)
She promptly did.
I freaked a little.
I call them Russell Raven Cindy Corvid Crow Palmer (has a gimp legand caws for attention constantly)
I'd love to develop an actual relationship with them... but I'd rather not feed them to do it