Magpies and crows are using “anti-bird spikes” to make nests (2023)
audubon.org
audubon.org
But for the magpies, there was an additional layer of intrigue; not only were the birds using the spikes to build nests, but it’s possible they were also employing the devices for their intended purpose—to ward off other birds. “It’s a very natural behavior,” Hiemstra says. “We think these spikes are for nest defense."
Off the top of my head, if a tool is made of plastic for example, we’d be littering our environments with questionable trash.
But conceptually, what’s the downside to leave a huge pile of defensive materials like bird spikes in the forest to help promote nest health?
Stopping short of given them weapons of course. (Shout out to the other comment about training animals to dismantle barbed wire.)
That is interesting. What if we designed tools for use by corvids?
> conceptually, what’s the downside to leave a huge pile of defensive materials like bird spikes in the forest to help promote nest health?
We'd be supporting one species, the prey, over the other, the predator. Why? Do we mean to apply vegan principles to animals? What happens to the predators? How do animal rights apply? Conceptually, it's really a difficult question.
Where I live we have enough slugs to feed thousands of hedgehogs but they don't understand traffic. Therefore it is fine to build luxury hotels for them.
That's an interesting line of thought. The only thing that comes to mind is something like giving them fancy hats or paintjobs to encourage more reproductive success in declining species.
One could also imagine releasing a virus which reprogrammed wildlife genomes for resistance against some toxin that we had previously introduced into the environment (ideally we would also stop introducing the toxin...).
But none of these things come down to "heres a tool for you to use". Golly I wish I could come up with some technology that would help the woodpeckers better hunt invasive pine beetles--the forests around me are looking pretty rough--but that's a bit too fantastical to hope for.
Not to say that further interventions will be helpful in "reestablishing balance".
Even the concept of "balance" or homeostasis has long been recognized to not really exist in any ecosystem.
* French fries
* Cooked pasta, maybe baked ziti?
* BBQ ribs, but just the bone with some sauce on it
* Chicken nuggets
* One dead bird, conveniently opened for me
* Several whole dead baby chicks
* One baby chick's head
I would shake my car keys when I put the food out, and it would show up a few minutes later, but I never figured out if it just saw me or heard the keys.
Here's some video clips of my buddy:
https://i.imgur.com/4ZQb7L3.mp4 https://i.imgur.com/B4DBLxg.mp4
edit: make the links clickable
My assumption is that it is indeed elevated, as the “residents” are constantly mindful of their movements (and therefore more stressed) to avoid being poked.
> For the crows, the spikes seem purely structural, a material used to fashion a solid foundation. In both crow nests, the wires were incorporated into the base–interwoven with the points facing inward, below where a softer nest cup would sit. But for the magpies, there was an additional layer of intrigue; not only were the birds using the spikes to build nests, but it’s possible they were also employing the devices for their intended purpose—to ward off other birds.
When you see the nests, it is amazing that doves / pigeons exist at all. They must survive out of spite and numbers.
Check out /r/stupiddovenests on reddit for some good examples.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_dove#Distribution_and_hab...
https://www.boredpanda.com/pigeon-poppies-nest-remembrance-d...
They've basically evolved past the point of needing nests but still have some basic instinct to create them.
(Or are the birds here AWOL from their training camp?)
More generally, the history of warfare is all about taking the enemy's resources and using them as weapons against the foe. This will be a defining feature of future cyberwar and AI - everything we build to "protect ourselves" will at some point be repurposed to advantage an enemy.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_pigeon
[2] https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/warfares-unsung-pi...
https://youtu.be/t4cw-Av2Pk4?feature=shared (Around 28min mark)
Most birds just aren't big enough to do real damage to barbed wire or razor wire defenses. Now if you could somehow train the birds to harass a herd of cattle into running down the fence, that might work. Sort of like the Hitchcock movie The Birds.
Are there other good examples of animals subverting restrictions?
People do create those a lot more than one would expect.
Saved the link for more bird news.
Our dryer lint was largely cat hair.
I also see a cat hunt tiny mice on a tiny strip of grass in the middle of a busy intersection. Apparently this is a great spot for a nest, in the middle of large roaring vehicles that kill everything on their way.
"Why a four-year-old child could understand this report. Run out and find me a four-year-old child. I can't make head or tail out of it." --Groucho Marx as Rufus T. Firefly, "Duck Soup"
When my daughter was 4 or 5 and down in bed with 39 C fever, I was having trouble opening her bottle of ibuprofen syrup. Child proof cap of course, so too hard for a 29 year old.
So I heard her - barely speaking because of the fever - "daddy let me help you". I brought the bottle to her bed and of course she opened it the first try.
Do you practice daily?
Within the first couple of times at least unless it's physically defective or something. It's not really something able bodied people have problems with.
Seemed familiar…