That being said, I don't see many crows around my area anymore. A whole slew of them got killed off by the West Nile virus a few years ago, and I don't think they've really recovered from it.
Apparently, a species of crow is one of the few species that has learned how to feed on the toxic cane toad. The cane toad apparently has a very poisonous skin along its back, but not on its belly. Crows apparently learned to flip the toads on their back and then eat them from the underside.!
So what beastie will Australia import to get rid of the crows when they inevitably escape and start to take up a population niche?
What do you mean 'escape', they're pretty common in urban areas.
Walking through my old high school after hours was pretty damn creepy. They'd just sit there and watch you pass by
I was making a reference to every scheme Australia has had to control pests(i.e. rabbits) ever blowing up in their faces.
Years ago, one morning when I was walking from my home to my old school, I would cross a large park area. On this day, as I was walking along, I could see some crows on the ground in the distance. They were kinda in my path, but I just ignored them, expecting them to fly off when I got closer, as birds are want to do.
When I was about 20ft away, they weren't budging. They were also very quiet. I also noted that they had formed a circle around another crow - ok, I thought, thats weird. So I started to veer towards this assembly. I then realized that the bird in the middle wasn't moving. At all. He/she was dead. The other crows were standing around, just watching or holding some sort of vigil. I was within 10ft of them by now, utterly fascinated. None of them stirred at my approach, so I stopped at this distance and just watched. A few crows regarded me, but none of them seemed wary of me. It seemed like they were hanging around the dead crow for some purpose.
So I stood there for a good 5 minutes before I had to make a move to get to school on time. I still remember the whole experience vividly. When I was walking home that evening, the crows body was there, but the vigil had ended. I wasn't freaked out by seeing this, rather as I have become older I realize I was witness to something pretty special in nature. I've had a deep respect for crows ever since - they are definitely brighter then you'd think.
Apparently, a species of crow is one of the few species that has learned how to feed on the toxic cane toad. The cane toad apparently has a very poisonous skin along its back, but not on its belly. Crows apparently learned to flip the toads on their back and then eat them from the underside.!
So what beastie will Australia import to get rid of the crows when they inevitably escape and start to take up a population niche?
What do you mean 'escape', they're pretty common in urban areas.
Walking through my old high school after hours was pretty damn creepy. They'd just sit there and watch you pass by
I was making a reference to every scheme Australia has had to control pests(i.e. rabbits) ever blowing up in their faces.
hey, mixo worked pretty well. and the prickly pear moth, that was a frickin' lifesaver.
but yes, its a pretty major rule of ecology that something like 95% of species introductions go badly wrong. Its not just Oz :P
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
Apparently, a species of crow is one of the few species that has learned how to feed on the toxic cane toad. The cane toad apparently has a very poisonous skin along its back, but not on its belly. Crows apparently learned to flip the toads on their back and then eat them from the underside.!
So what beastie will Australia import to get rid of the crows when they inevitably escape and start to take up a population niche?
What do you mean 'escape', they're pretty common in urban areas.
Walking through my old high school after hours was pretty damn creepy. They'd just sit there and watch you pass by
I was making a reference to every scheme Australia has had to control pests(i.e. rabbits) ever blowing up in their faces.
hey, mixo worked pretty well. and the prickly pear moth, that was a frickin' lifesaver.
but yes, its a pretty major rule of ecology that something like 95% of species introductions go badly wrong. Its not just Oz :P
But Down Under had the hilarious sequence of Rabbits, stoats, cats, dogs, and so on. Basically everything they tried backfired on them.
Apparently, a species of crow is one of the few species that has learned how to feed on the toxic cane toad. The cane toad apparently has a very poisonous skin along its back, but not on its belly. Crows apparently learned to flip the toads on their back and then eat them from the underside.!
So what beastie will Australia import to get rid of the crows when they inevitably escape and start to take up a population niche?
What do you mean 'escape', they're pretty common in urban areas.
Walking through my old high school after hours was pretty damn creepy. They'd just sit there and watch you pass by
I was making a reference to every scheme Australia has had to control pests(i.e. rabbits) ever blowing up in their faces.
hey, mixo worked pretty well. and the prickly pear moth, that was a frickin' lifesaver.
but yes, its a pretty major rule of ecology that something like 95% of species introductions go badly wrong. Its not just Oz :P
But Down Under had the hilarious sequence of Rabbits, stoats, cats, dogs, and so on. Basically everything they tried backfired on them.
Yeah, we are kind of a special case. The local ecology was so isolated for so long that it never developed the ability to handle most of the new arrivals (in terms of macrofauna mostly, but the same applies to a number of plants and fish). That was the modus operandi of biologists back then, though. Don't think too much, just keep tinkering and hope you wind up with something that looks vaguely like Jolly Olde England :P
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
Apparently, a species of crow is one of the few species that has learned how to feed on the toxic cane toad. The cane toad apparently has a very poisonous skin along its back, but not on its belly. Crows apparently learned to flip the toads on their back and then eat them from the underside.!
So what beastie will Australia import to get rid of the crows when they inevitably escape and start to take up a population niche?
What do you mean 'escape', they're pretty common in urban areas.
Walking through my old high school after hours was pretty damn creepy. They'd just sit there and watch you pass by
I was making a reference to every scheme Australia has had to control pests(i.e. rabbits) ever blowing up in their faces.
hey, mixo worked pretty well. and the prickly pear moth, that was a frickin' lifesaver.
but yes, its a pretty major rule of ecology that something like 95% of species introductions go badly wrong. Its not just Oz :P
But Down Under had the hilarious sequence of Rabbits, stoats, cats, dogs, and so on. Basically everything they tried backfired on them.
Yeah, we are kind of a special case. The local ecology was so isolated for so long that it never developed the ability to handle most of the new arrivals (in terms of macrofauna mostly, but the same applies to a number of plants and fish). That was the modus operandi of biologists back then, though. Don't think too much, just keep tinkering and hope you wind up with something that looks vaguely like Jolly Olde England :P
I am now imagining England with cassowaries running about. It amuses me.
Crows are pretty awesome. I've always been fond of them myself, and they're probably my favorite birds. We're big into birds back at my parent's house and although my dad has got most of the smaller birds to come around to eat the massive amounts of food he leaves out for them, he never had much luck with the crows. They're too suspicious, and too intelligent. He's also noticed that they work in teams - ie, there's a scout and a couple of sentries who look out for the scout whenever they swoop down to try to get something to eat.
He claims that one of his old friends had a pet crow that could speak, like a parrot. I don't know if it's true or not.
Also, for all the talk of our impending avian overlords, well...I'm not sure it will play out as well as we hoped.
I knew ravens could do the mimicry thing, I didn't think crows could, though. Yes, I'm aware they're very closely related. I actually have a nonfiction book called Mind of the Raven, based on the author, Bernd Heinrich, studying the birds and how they think. Apparently people who raise the things often develop their own sort of secret "language" with their pet birds made up of simple sounds that they use to communicate with one another.
The author's pets were orphaned chicks, if I recall correctly. You basically just have to get them to believe you're their parent and then feed them roadkill and other nasty crow food until they can go out and feed themselves.
I mean, I knew crows were smart, but that's like almost cephelopod-level smart. Maybe moreso; I don't know if there are recorded instances of cephelopod tool use, although in fairness it's not like squid really need tools.
Caledonian crows are likely smarter than cephelopods. There is a good case to be made for those buggers being the second smartest animal on the planet.
dolphins!
Dolphins don't show the ability to transform an object never before seen into another object with different properties from the first.
Also, dolphins have to be trained to use their little machines. Crows learn how to use vending machines all on their own.
Not exactly. They were "trained" as well through the different stages that the vending machine went through.
Crows hate owls. This is because owls are terrifying nocturnal predators that are quite capable of killing them in their sleep. Often, if crows find where an owl sleeps during the day they'll get a huge mob together and kill it.
Birds evolved from dinosaurs. Crows are birds. Crows evolved from dinosaurs.
Crows are highly evolved, intelligent dinosaurs which can communicate, speak English, make tools to solve problems, produce art, and work together in teams to achieve goals.
We're fucked.
PUNY APES!
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
The author's pets were orphaned chicks, if I recall correctly. You basically just have to get them to believe you're their parent and then feed them roadkill and other nasty crow food until they can go out and feed themselves.
In the US, it's illegal to have crows as pets. However, if you become a caretaker for orphaned or injured crows, you can get a de facto crow pet.
I mean, I knew crows were smart, but that's like almost cephelopod-level smart. Maybe moreso; I don't know if there are recorded instances of cephelopod tool use, although in fairness it's not like squid really need tools.
So when crows develop phosphorescent cells and learn to change colour, they'll team up with the dolphins and then we'll really be screwed.
Anyway. I've always thought crows were awesome.
I have a related question:
Crows.
Ravens.
Rooks.
Are they all the same thing, and just synonyms? My understanding is that a "rook" is just the british word for crow. But are ravens the same as crows and rooks?
Ravens have four pinion feathers on each wing, while crows only have three. So the differance is just a matter of a pinion.
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#someshit
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
I mean, I knew crows were smart, but that's like almost cephelopod-level smart. Maybe moreso; I don't know if there are recorded instances of cephelopod tool use, although in fairness it's not like squid really need tools.
So when crows develop phosphorescent cells and learn to change colour, they'll team up with the dolphins and then we'll really be screwed.
Anyway. I've always thought crows were awesome.
I have a related question:
Crows.
Ravens.
Rooks.
Are they all the same thing, and just synonyms? My understanding is that a "rook" is just the british word for crow. But are ravens the same as crows and rooks?
Ravens have four pinion feathers on each wing, while crows only have three. So the differance is just a matter of a pinion.
In the US, it's illegal to have crows as pets. However, if you become a caretaker for orphaned or injured crows, you can get a de facto crow pet.
You'd want your pet crow to be a little injured anyway, honestly. I'd be afraid a perfectly healthy crow would just get bored with me and fly away one day.
Is there any reason you can't buy crows as pets just like you would a parakeet or a macaw? Seems like they ought to be just as easy to domesticate, and they're a hell of a lot easier to find, too.
Ravens have four pinion feathers on each wing, while crows only have three. So the differance is just a matter of a pinion.
That's hardly the only difference, but it's true that most of the differences tend to be superficial. Ravens tend to be larger, tend to have more arched beaks, etc. There are differences in social structure, as well.
EDIT: According to Wikipedia:
Apart from its greater size, the Common Raven differs from its cousins, the crows, by having a larger and heavier beak, a shaggy throat, and a wedge-shaped tail.[24] The species has a distinctive, deep, resonant prruk-prruk-prruk call, which to experienced listeners is unlike that of any other corvid. Its very wide and complex vocabulary includes a high, knocking toc-toc-toc, a dry, grating kraa, a low guttural rattle and some calls of an almost musical nature.[25]
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
Ravens have four pinion feathers on each wing, while crows only have three. So the differance is just a matter of a pinion.
That's hardly the only difference, but it's true that most of the differences tend to be superficial. Ravens tend to be larger, tend to have more arched beaks, etc. There are differences in social structure, as well.
Is there any reason you can't buy crows as pets just like you would a parakeet or a macaw? Seems like they ought to be just as easy to domesticate, and they're a hell of a lot easier to find, too.
Based on the video evidence, there's a pretty good chance they would kill you and assume your identity, living off internet-bought seed and rodents until your credit ran out and they left to find another luckless benefactor.
since we're bringing up ravens, you'll find in the nw that the native american's creation story and most other myths center on ravens and how smart they are. always tricking some other animals in the pantheon but especially picking on the eagles.
i grew up watching those bastards team up to steal fish from eagles in flight. i dunno about overlord crafty, but crafty never the less.
Apparently, a species of crow is one of the few species that has learned how to feed on the toxic cane toad. The cane toad apparently has a very poisonous skin along its back, but not on its belly. Crows apparently learned to flip the toads on their back and then eat them from the underside.!
So what beastie will Australia import to get rid of the crows when they inevitably escape and start to take up a population niche?
What do you mean 'escape', they're pretty common in urban areas.
Walking through my old high school after hours was pretty damn creepy. They'd just sit there and watch you pass by
I was making a reference to every scheme Australia has had to control pests(i.e. rabbits) ever blowing up in their faces.
hey, mixo worked pretty well. and the prickly pear moth, that was a frickin' lifesaver.
but yes, its a pretty major rule of ecology that something like 95% of species introductions go badly wrong. Its not just Oz :P
I mean, I knew crows were smart, but that's like almost cephelopod-level smart. Maybe moreso; I don't know if there are recorded instances of cephelopod tool use, although in fairness it's not like squid really need tools.
So when crows develop phosphorescent cells and learn to change colour, they'll team up with the dolphins and then we'll really be screwed.
Anyway. I've always thought crows were awesome.
I have a related question:
Crows.
Ravens.
Rooks.
Are they all the same thing, and just synonyms? My understanding is that a "rook" is just the british word for crow. But are ravens the same as crows and rooks?
Ravens have four pinion feathers on each wing, while crows only have three. So the differance is just a matter of a pinion.
since we're bringing up ravens, you'll find in the nw that the native american's creation story and most other myths center on ravens and how smart they are. always tricking some other animals in the pantheon but especially picking on the eagles.
i grew up watching those bastards team up to steal fish from eagles in flight. i dunno about overlord crafty, but crafty never the less.
Virtually every mythology that sprung up in a region with ravens includes them as symbols/avatars for some combination of intelligence, cunning and/or death.
I mean, I knew crows were smart, but that's like almost cephelopod-level smart. Maybe moreso; I don't know if there are recorded instances of cephelopod tool use, although in fairness it's not like squid really need tools.
So when crows develop phosphorescent cells and learn to change colour, they'll team up with the dolphins and then we'll really be screwed.
Anyway. I've always thought crows were awesome.
I have a related question:
Crows.
Ravens.
Rooks.
Are they all the same thing, and just synonyms? My understanding is that a "rook" is just the british word for crow. But are ravens the same as crows and rooks?
Ravens have four pinion feathers on each wing, while crows only have three. So the differance is just a matter of a pinion.
I'm going to strangle you.
Go for it. I reported him for awesome. so his genius will live forever... in a seldom visited subforum.
Sentry on
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
wrote:
When I was a little kid, I always pretended I was the hero,' Skip said.
'Fuck yeah, me too. What little kid ever pretended to be part of the lynch-mob?'
Crows hate owls. This is because owls are terrifying nocturnal predators that are quite capable of killing them in their sleep. Often, if crows find where an owl sleeps during the day they'll get a huge mob together and kill it.
So that's why I found a dead, mutilated owl in my backyard. My dad and I spent the whole day trying to figure out what would attack an owl.
Once after church while my parents were in a meeting, I was wandering around and saw a crow and a couple of mockingbirds in the field next door. So I made a cawing sound really loud, and apparently I said something in crow, because the mockingbirds freaked out and started attacking the crow that they had been standing so peacefully with seconds earlier. They all started flying and the mockingbirds chased it away. I thought it was awesome at the time, but now I kinda feel bad for getting an innocent crow in trouble.
One time when I was a little kid my cousin told me she had "found out how to talk to her cat". So she brings the cat into the room and starts making these horrible schreeching caterwauling noises.
We got a reaction from the cat, alright. Unfortunately, the only thing she knew how to say in Cattese was "DEAD NOW MOTHERFUCKER!" because the cat flipped out and attacked her.
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I am sorry I asked. Please carry on.
That being said, I don't see many crows around my area anymore. A whole slew of them got killed off by the West Nile virus a few years ago, and I don't think they've really recovered from it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGPGknpq3e0&feature=related
Hiding in plain sight.
*sniff*
but yes, its a pretty major rule of ecology that something like 95% of species introductions go badly wrong. Its not just Oz :P
and ravens, of course. I'll stop dancing through tangents now.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
He claims that one of his old friends had a pet crow that could speak, like a parrot. I don't know if it's true or not.
Also, for all the talk of our impending avian overlords, well...I'm not sure it will play out as well as we hoped.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAQjgC9Nl84
Crows are pretty closely related to parrots and they share the ability to make human sounds.
How do you manage to get them?
The author's pets were orphaned chicks, if I recall correctly. You basically just have to get them to believe you're their parent and then feed them roadkill and other nasty crow food until they can go out and feed themselves.
Birds evolved from dinosaurs. Crows are birds. Crows evolved from dinosaurs.
Crows are highly evolved, intelligent dinosaurs which can communicate, speak English, make tools to solve problems, produce art, and work together in teams to achieve goals.
We're fucked.
PUNY APES!
In the US, it's illegal to have crows as pets. However, if you become a caretaker for orphaned or injured crows, you can get a de facto crow pet.
Ravens have four pinion feathers on each wing, while crows only have three. So the differance is just a matter of a pinion.
Is there any reason you can't buy crows as pets just like you would a parakeet or a macaw? Seems like they ought to be just as easy to domesticate, and they're a hell of a lot easier to find, too.
That's hardly the only difference, but it's true that most of the differences tend to be superficial. Ravens tend to be larger, tend to have more arched beaks, etc. There are differences in social structure, as well.
EDIT: According to Wikipedia:
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
And trying to correct my joke!
...Reassuring.
i grew up watching those bastards team up to steal fish from eagles in flight. i dunno about overlord crafty, but crafty never the less.
This guy would agree:
I'm going to strangle you.
They've definitely made an impression.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Go for it. I reported him for awesome. so his genius will live forever... in a seldom visited subforum.
So that's why I found a dead, mutilated owl in my backyard. My dad and I spent the whole day trying to figure out what would attack an owl.
Steam | Twitter
One time when I was a little kid my cousin told me she had "found out how to talk to her cat". So she brings the cat into the room and starts making these horrible schreeching caterwauling noises.
We got a reaction from the cat, alright. Unfortunately, the only thing she knew how to say in Cattese was "DEAD NOW MOTHERFUCKER!" because the cat flipped out and attacked her.
Now, back to talking about crows.