Research reveals crows use statistical logic

arstechnica.com

20 points·anjel··9 comments

I had to go find https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/09/for-the-first-time-r... on mobile.

Thanks! Had the same issue.

I like to put out peanuts in the backyard for the local gang of crows. It's funny to watch them move like a SWAT team: a small group will come, and one of them will hang out at a distance as a lookout, while the others move in for the nuts (I scatter them around a little). One little guy likes to look under a planter box at a specific location, and sometimes I will put a couple of nuts there just for him.

The nuts cost me $3 at Trader Joes and a packet lasts a week, so I think that's the best $0.50 I spend in a day.

I plan to ramp up the difficulty of obtaining nuts slowly over time, just to see how many can get it.

I haven't had luck with the shelled peanuts and crows, but I've gotten a lot of scrub jays, magpies, chickadees, and yesterday there was a big flycatcher.

I keep thinking to switch to peanuts in the shell, but I'd miss all the little guys.

I get the Trader Joes' "Dry Roasted and Unsalted" peanuts. Crows just gobble them up. I've seen them stuff 3-4 peanuts into their beaks and take off.

Please don’t do this more often than once every few months. If they come to rely on you, when you inevitably move on there will be a mass die off that can be directly attributed to your actions. Keep wildlife wild, fed is dead.

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/idkt_feedingwildlife.htm

LOL... they live in a city. There's plenty of food around, what with restaurants, fast food joints, elementary schools, etc.

Nature isn't that stupid.

I'd be more surprised if they used predicate or symbolic logic.

Is this a picture of a Persona 3 promo for anyone else?

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