
When a crow dies, the other crows investigate the cause of death (2015) - reimertz
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151003-animals-science-crows-birds-culture-brains/
======
SiVal
A VERY timely article for me. About a month ago here in Silicon Valley, I
noticed that a crow had been violently torn apart and the pieces scattered all
over my backyard lawn. I assume the killer was a raccoon--another improbably
intelligent animal. How those fat, little ninjas do what they do is beyond me,
but one had apparently caught a crow. A few hours after I noticed the carnage,
I grabbed a paper grocery bag and some rubber gloves and went outside to
collect the crow parts.

As soon as I touched the first piece (a large, black, detached wing), a dozen
crows appeared out of nowhere flying in tight circles over my head (about the
height of the roof of my 2-story house) and shrieking. They must have been
standing watch for hours waiting to see what would happen. Within a minute or
so, their numbers had doubled, swarming like bees and screeching. They went so
berserk that I thought for sure they would swoop down and peck at me like
Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds", but they didn't. They stayed up there and
screeched the whole time I was cleaning up (maybe ten minutes).

I took the bag over to the recycling bin on the side of the house. Property is
expensive, so the houses are close together leaving only a narrow slit of sky
above me. The crows followed me and flew back and forth right above the gap,
still screeching at me. _I_ hadn't killed the bird, but they were acting like
an angry mob blaming the wrong guy.

I was already aware of the studies showing that crows recognize individual
people and can bear grudges for years. I was afraid that's what I was going to
end up with, but after that event, they never bothered me again, and I see
crows around my house frequently. Maybe they DID know that I wasn't the
killer, but they had some other agenda. From my perspective, they (and
raccoons) are essentially alien intelligences living among us that I always
underestimate and still don't understand.

~~~
Unklejoe
[They stayed up there and screeched the whole time I was cleaning up (maybe
ten minutes).]

I probably would have went inside and left the remains to nature. I commend
your bravery. It seems like a squad of crows could do some real damage to a
person.

Also, I can confirm that raccoons are very intelligent. They're basically like
dogs but with more "street smarts". I learned this after trying to get one to
leave my attic.

Also, a side note about Raccoons: be sure not to expose yourself to their
droppings (for example, if one is living in your attic, don't go and clean up
their droppings without proper protection). They can apparently contain some
airborne parasite which can kill you in days if inhaled.

~~~
aaron695
\- It seems like a squad of crows could do some real damage to a person

Sorry but you've lost the plot on this one. Seen way to many movies.

Single birds might become territorial when they have young and you might lose
a eye. But thats it.

I'd watch less TV/'current affairs'/crows are smart stories if I was you.

Alcohol, tobacco and mental issues.... now those are scarry killers.

~~~
matwood
I would consider losing an eye real damage to my person.

~~~
euyyn
Apparently you need to watch less movies about blindness being bad...

------
sharkweek
So fascinating!

There is a young girl in Seattle who made friends with the local crows by
feeding them, they soon were bringing her regular gifts in exchange for her
snacks -
[http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31604026](http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31604026)

I tried to do the same thing in my backyard for about three weeks until one
day my wife caught me putting little pieces of bread on our porch railing. She
asked what I was doing and I explained making friends with the crows (what
else?!). She asked me to stop so I did.

My only hope is that they attack her now and not me, with some level of
understanding that she was the one who ruined all the fun...

~~~
danielbln
To put the story you linked in context, it's less "little girl feeds a couple
of crows" and more "large scale feeding operation" that pisses of the
neighbors: [http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Neighbors-sue-to-
stop...](http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Neighbors-sue-to-stop-Seattle-
s-bird-feeding-6438345.php)

~~~
AbacusAvenger
Well, that's one interpretation, and the city and health department have made
statements disagreeing with it. We'll see what the courts say eventually, it's
scheduled to go to trial in August 2016.
[http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Crow-feeding-
Seattle-...](http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Crow-feeding-Seattle-
family-fights-neighbors-6577852.php)

~~~
kabouseng
I think this says a lot : "A petition signed by 51 neighbors filed a petition
with the city of Seattle failed to prompt action."

------
sirtastic
I believe ravens and crows are very similar, this is a personal (long, and not
the great) story about a raven I messed around with in Yosemite National Park:

When I was up on north dome (not to be confused with half dome) there was a
group of raven's hanging out on the rocks watching us eat our late lunch. I
had an apple core that I tossed to the side and watched as a raven warily
tried to approach it. I walked over and grabbed the apple core before the
raven could grab it so I could entertain myself teasing the raven for a bit
before we started down the mountain. I started by putting my arm back ready to
throw the apple and as I did that I noticed the raven kneel a bit as if
getting ready to launch itself. I thought this was interesting as it showed it
was anticipating me throwing the object based on my arm motion. As I relaxed
my arm the bird also relaxed.

I tried grabbing a rock and again watched it brace itself to launch from the
rock then tried switching the apple core and the rock behind my back and
tossing the rock hoping the bird would dart after it thinking it was the core.
The bird didn't do as I expected and instead just watched me carefully never
motioning for the rocks.

I tore a piece of the apple from the core behind my back and tossed it just as
I had with the rocks and before the piece of apple even left my hand the raven
leaped from the rock in its direction.

This blew my mind. Not sure how the raven knew it was a chunk of apple and not
a rock.

I messed around with that particular raven for a good 10-15 minutes tossing
various things in its direction, testing its reactions and trying to mess with
its little raven mind. All I managed to do however was be impressed at its
level of experience in dealing with Yosemite tourists such as myself.

~~~
krzrak
You realize you're not supposed to toss around garbage in the national park?

~~~
Unklejoe
Here's a different perspective, which I will admit in advance is kind of
ridiculous, but it makes me think...

Why are humans not considered to be a part of nature? I think it’s because we
consider ourselves to be more intelligent than other animals/organisms and
therefore assume it to be our responsibility to actively protect nature.
However, this is based on our own moral standards, which were created by us,
likely as a result of our ability to empathize.

A human eating an apple and discarding the core seems pretty natural to me
(though it’s not, by definition). If this has an impact on the wildlife
population, then perhaps it was “meant to be”.

Going out of our way to preserve nature seems more unnatural. Nature should
have no expectation of our intelligence, so perhaps the human-caused
destruction of the world is itself natural.

Then again, perhaps our increased intelligence is natural, so going out of our
way to preserve nature is natural.

As you can see, I basically have no point here. It’s just an interesting
thought train that I felt like expressing.

Of course, this argument could be extended to just about anything that a human
does, including pumping oil directly into the ocean, which is why I’m not
actually trying to argue this point.

I guess what I am saying is that if humans are left unregulated, nature seems
to find a way to restore sanity. An example of this is the over prescription
of antibiotics which has led to a decrease in their overall effectiveness. It
seems like nature will always win in the end.

~~~
coldpie
Unregulated humans have lead to the extinction of hundreds (thousands?) of
species. Largely by hunting, but also unintentionally by destroying habitats.
It's also a safety hazard: when you feed wild animals, they learn to associate
humans with food and are more willing to approach humans, which places humans
in danger. Aside from animal welfare, garbage is just disgusting. If one
person sees an apple core, perhaps they'll assume it's OK to leave their
Doritos bag, and someone else a beer bottle, and now the area is spoiled for
everyone. Not to mention health hazards for both humans and animals from
rotting food.

~~~
tripzilch
> If one person sees an apple core, perhaps they'll assume it's OK to leave
> their Doritos bag

Let me nuance that a little bit: They don't _actually_ believe it's OK,
they're really just lazy and inconsiderate. If they were _actually_ unaware of
the difference between food and plastic packaging, the problem would be
solving itself.

------
ogig
I've been very involved with the carrion crows near my house. I feed them with
peanuts. At first they wouldn't even come near the food. Now they salute, ask
for food, do fly bys and they get extremely close to me. I have observed them
long hours.

What most amazes me is how they communicate. They group and start talking
complex things using low volume sounds. Maybe they discuss how to stash my
peanuts, or what side they will use to approach me, or who will stay back and
watch for dangers.

They also do long distance talking. At the mornings mainly, the group will
remain silent while a designated one will song loud. You can hear distant
groups responding. Sometimes this long distance chat start group movements to
where I can't follow them.

Crow are intelligent, amazing animals. I encourage everyone to look at them
more often, they do look at us all the time.

------
nl
This whole article is pretty interesting, but the last paragraph is worth
quoting:

 _For instance, in 2008 Marzluff had researchers in caveman masks capture
crows while others in a control mask—Dick Cheney—let the birds be. Afterward
the birds ignored the harmless Cheneys but scolded and chased the cavemen, and
did so for years.

Poor birds! Probably thought they could trust a Crow-Magnon._

Dick Cheney masks! Probably thought they could trust a _Crow-Magnon_. I have
faith in the world again.

~~~
kissickas
Seems like crows are prime for weaponization (maybe expressing my inner Dick
Cheney here). Just don a mask and attack a few crows near your target, leaving
some witnesses.

Has it ever been done before? A quick Google search didn't uncover anything.

~~~
joveian
Sound like high risk for low reward, even if they don't figure out that the
other people aren't involved which they might.

At first I thought you ment like this:
[http://cyberneticzoo.com/bionics/1940-project-
pigeon-1948-pr...](http://cyberneticzoo.com/bionics/1940-project-
pigeon-1948-project-orcon-b-f-skinner-american/)

~~~
kissickas
Hilarious! Reminded me of
[https://archive.google.com/pigeonrank/](https://archive.google.com/pigeonrank/)

------
adamnemecek
If you find this interesting, you should really look into the intelligence of
crows. They've been observed to remember human faces, wait on traffic lights,
plan, and a whole bunch of things that are very impressive.

And don't even get me started on _jackdaws_.

~~~
slavik81
Corvids (crows, ravens, magpies, jackdaws) are pretty bright. Some of them
also have quite a bit of voice control. Like parrots, they can speak human
words if trained.

[https://youtu.be/rIX_6TBeph0](https://youtu.be/rIX_6TBeph0)

~~~
adrianm
Is there any evidence this isn't fake?

~~~
slavik81
He does sound a little like a voice synthesiser, but I think that's mostly
because both birds and computers speak English poorly. Here's another example:
[https://youtu.be/AfsnHVaScjg](https://youtu.be/AfsnHVaScjg)

~~~
s_kilk
Re: voice synth, I think that's just an artifact of how birds vocal chords (or
whatever gizmo they've got in there) work. The timbre of the voice is going to
be different than that of a primate.

EDIT: you can even hear it in their natural calls, they have a buzzing, saw-
like texture in the upper-mid and high range.

------
nerone
For last 2 years, I am suffering from depression. I decided to isolate myself,
which I knew was wrong. My parents were worried about my situation since I am
living with them. I live in a village where this sort of behavior is
condemned, and people are very hardworking(they are either farmers, fishermen,
construction workers/helpers). What I noticed was, whenever I go outside of my
house a bunch of crows will gather around and caw at me, until I disappear
from their site. But they wont follow me in the streets. Some times more than
30 crows will gather near the trees, and kinda shout at me. (I always felt
like they were yelling at me, to get a life :) )

So I decided to give a try to get more disciplined. From past to months I wake
up at 5 am for gym, and have a routine life. Now none of the crows notice me
:).

My explanation: These crows can sense how people live and behave. And they
found out I was very odd in the community. :) :)

~~~
JTon
An alternate explanation: The crows were cawing encouragements :)

------
fbonetti
The image of the researcher wearing a mask and holding a dead crow is
absolutely terrifying:

[http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/10/03/00/2D0746BE0000057...](http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/10/03/00/2D0746BE00000578-3258227-image-a-35_1443829916200.jpg)

~~~
theklub
Looks like something straight out of True Detective

------
nstart
So here's a story for the books. I live in Sri Lanka and we have massive
numbers of crows always flying around in the urban areas causing quite the
racket too. They are exceptionally intelligent and have been witnessed
hitching bus rides regularly from one town to another. But the story I have
happened at a school water polo match.

The location the match was being played at had a standard pool and a shallow
junior pool right next to each other. During the match a wild attempt to score
a goal missed the side and the ball smashed full force into a crow who was
drinking water from the junior pool. This of course resulted in the poor
crow's death. But what was amazing was that within a few minutes, every other
crow in the vicinity had surrounded the dying crow and then decided that they
would attack the spectators and the players. We had to clear the entire
stadium and pool for a good half an hour till they allowed us to return
(although they left their dead comrade behind who had to be cleared away by a
hapless cleaning staff member).

One less impressive story but still relevant to the article. We had an antique
air rifle at home that needed repairs. My uncle who did such repairs said he'd
come along and look into it. That evening there were plenty of crows around as
usual. Most of them were in the trees two houses away. I assume these were
crows who had forever lived in urban areas and probably never been shot at let
alone seen a gun. They've lived through plenty of fireworks and don't seem all
that bothered by them whenever they do go off. But when I brought the gun out
to show to my uncle, the ruckus caused was utterly deafening. And just like
that, silence. Every single crow had scattered from the area. How they
recognised an object like that and so instantly is a question and memory that
has stuck around with me forever.

Amazing creatures who annoy me with their never ending din and tendencies to
somehow make a mess of any garbage bag left out in the open, but they'll
always have my absolute respect for their intelligence.

~~~
avar

        > I assume these were crows who had forever lived
        > in urban areas and probably never been shot at
        > let alone seen a gun.
    

Easy explanation for this that's probably correct:

\- Your assumption that crows don't range outside the urban area is false.

\- It would have only taken one crow in the group to be familiar with a gun

\- That single individual recognizing it and flying off in a panic triggers
the rest to fly off, a behavior typical of herd/flock animals.

~~~
nstart
My assumption might be false. It doesn't necessarily have to be false. Our
urban area is fairly large.

I agree it would take just one crow to be familiar with a gun. But at the same
time, there was no displaying of the gun. The crows weren't in the immediate
vicinity. They were mostly on the trees two houses away. The recognition that
I had brought out a dangerous object took just a few seconds from the moment I
stepped through the door. Even if my assumption is wrong about their past, the
fact that some crow(s) took the sight of the gun in so quickly is still pretty
darn amazing

~~~
bitJericho
Birds can see small objects from very far distances. Small objects from a mile
or more. An eagle for example can be nearly out of your range of sight but can
easily see rodents. Once the crows saw the object they would raise an alarm
which is why the whole group squawked and left.

------
ProfChronos
Fascinating study. It really triggers questions around how animals' memory
work - short term vs long-term, trauma vs joy, etc. I have a 2-year French
shepherd (Beauceron) who, while being smart, has a very limited long-term
memory. I am almost convinced that he cannot make the difference between
waiting for me 5 minutes and 5 hours. At the same time, his trauma or joy
memory works incredibly well: he perfectly remembers people he only saw 2/3
times when he was 2 months or objects that hurt him. I always feel like
animals are trapped between an absolute lack of time and space consciousness
and an incredibly sharp conscious of feeling

~~~
Zelmor
What you are talking about are two different things: memories, and sense of
time. Most things aside humans, as much as I'm aware of, live in the here and
now. So 5 minutes and 5 hours do not make a difference when waiting for
something that is NOT here NOW.

Alas, humans are different. And thus we suffer.

------
sverige
Mockingbirds also remember faces. They will attack if they think you are a
predator. I had one who decided my daily walk was a threat - maybe I walked
too close to its nest - and came straight at my face. Scary as hell. That bird
then swooped to attack every time I went outdoors. To Kill a Mockingbird
indeed.

~~~
jboles
Magpies as well. They aim for the face/eyes. Usually if you come too close to
their nest.

------
DonHopkins
So is the full collective noun "A Murder Investigation of Crows"?

~~~
cma
A murder of crows investigating a murder of crow.

------
cossatot
My wife and I picked up a seemingly injured young crow from our yard before
the neighborhood cats (or buses) found it, and we took it to a local wounded
bird shelter. The crow's family(?) crowed incessantly whenever we walked
outside for a few months afterward. They would even start when we were several
blocks away, coming home from farther out, and would follow us to our door.
(The young crow apparently had a head injury, and we never heard back from the
place on its recovery.)

------
steveax
A couple of years ago, near dusk, I heard a hell of a bird ruckus and went out
to the front porch to have a look. What I saw blew me away: a young coyote was
making haste down the middle of the street, ears down and tail between its
legs being pursued by a very noisy aggressive murder of crows. They literally
chased him out of the neighborhood.

~~~
Zelmor
This can happen to people as well. I've heard stories about people throwing
rocks at ravens in parks, where the ravens at later events responded by
crapping on the person from up high, or throwing small rocks and twigs on him
as they flew by.

Never forgive, never forget.

------
helloworld9
Quote from the Quran 5:31 [1] "Then Allah sent a crow, who scratched the
ground, to show him how to hide the dead body of his brother. 'Woe to me!'
said he. 'Was I not even able to be as this raven, and to hide the shame of my
brother?' Then he became full of regrets."

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cain_and_Abel_in_Islam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cain_and_Abel_in_Islam)

------
John23832
This may sound weird, but in the country (rural Virginia) we already kind of
knew this.

If you had a farm and crows get in your crops, the solution was to shoot a
crow and leave it. The rest of the crows would stay and circle, but they would
leave the crops alone.

* Not advocating violence against animals. Just sharing that tidbit.

~~~
LyndsySimon
Yep. I was taught that if you wanted to shoot crows, to do it away from your
house - because they are vindictive little creatures and don't forget.

------
sdkjfwiluf
On my way to work one morning I came across a raven funeral. I didn't know
that's what it was at the time. All the ravens (Australian) were gathered
broadly in a disk amongst the trees, there were about 20 of them, all quiet
and quite still. I had a choice of routes, either through them or around them
to the right, I chose the latter as I didn't want to disturb whatever they
were doing.

------
MichaelMoser123
Crows also seem to be doing analogies
[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/crows-
understand-a...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/crows-understand-
analogies/)

Douglas Hofstadter says that thinking is all about making analogies, so that
is all pretty remarkable.

[https://www.amazon.com/Surfaces-Essences-Analogy-Fuel-
Thinki...](https://www.amazon.com/Surfaces-Essences-Analogy-Fuel-
Thinking/dp/0465018475)

------
emilong
To be fair, I also have unfavorable reactions when faced with mask-wearing
people holding dead crows. ;)

------
rollthehard6
The notorious Doritos shop lifting sea gull of Aberdeen
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqy9hxhUxK0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqy9hxhUxK0)
And another in South Shield, who favours Greggs -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4QXyUjQCgE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4QXyUjQCgE)

------
prestonpesek
Scientists? Or WITCHES!?!?!?

Seriously though, the human behavior study on this is as fascinating as the
animal one, and would be really hard to explain in a Salem courthouse.

And the picture of the masked scientist holding a dead crow? Add that to the
library of images that my subconscious will use to manufacture nightmares.

Edgar Allen Poe would be proud if he could see this masterpiece of creepiness.

------
rudedogg
My dog has been on a killing spree this summer, sometimes catching 2 birds in
a week :(.

It's amazing how the birds react when she catches one. They all go nuts, and
more fly in and start squawking.

I worry they'll call in a hawk to carry her away lol.

~~~
omegaham
Growing up, I had a cat who got attacked by a hawk. He came running in one day
with deep talon scratches on his back.

My mom took him to the vet, who cleaned up the wounds and said that it was
probably a juvenile who was overconfident in what he could grab. An adult
wouldn't have tried.

The mental image of this teenager hawk swooping down, grabbing a fatass
15-pound cat, and struggling to pick it up while Mom looks down and shakes her
head makes me smile.

~~~
wavefunction
I've seen an adult hawk predate a small dog before. The dog was likely killed
by the impact of the hawk, though I couldn't be sure because the hawk carried
the limp body away before the owner could take any action.

Here's another example:

[http://www.wrdw.com/home/headlines/Hawk-flies-away-with-
fami...](http://www.wrdw.com/home/headlines/Hawk-flies-away-with-family-pet--
220580101.html)

------
bpp
Holy crap the photo of the volunteer in the mask is terrifying.

~~~
ypeterholmes
Nightmare material right there.

------
agumonkey
Probably a ridiculous claim, but I think ants have a ant death detection
system too. After being invaded, putting dead ants on the path they used to
reach the food drawers made them backtrack immediately and stop using that
trail altogether.

~~~
tzs
They do in fact have a death detection system.

[http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2009/04/01/102601823/he...](http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2009/04/01/102601823/hey-
im-dead-the-story-of-the-very-lively-ant)

------
betolink
"...Afterward the birds ignored the harmless Cheneys" No such a thing as a
harmless Dick Cheney.

~~~
AimHere
Indeed. This research is part of Dick Cheney's sinister plot to regain power
using an army of crows trained to hate everyone but him...

------
enraged_camel
By the way, when there are crows around, do not stare or point at other birds'
nests if you spot any among the tree branches. Crows are _very_ good at
reading human gestures. If they see a bunch of humans staring and pointing at
something, they will understand that there is something of interest in that
direction, and will inevitably find and destroy the nests.

------
andyidsinga
I've always liked this one about the raven and bald eagle:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0w9q125TSI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0w9q125TSI)

BTW - I once read somewhere that its its illegal to keep native birds (like
crows, robins etc).

------
dmix
> Each volunteer was either holding a dead crow, standing near a dead red-
> tailed hawk—a crow predator—or standing near a dead red-tailed hawk holding
> the dead crow.

I had to reread this about 5 times to make sense of it. Am I just tired from a
long work day or is that a poorly phrase sentence?

~~~
gohrt
holding a dead crow, standing near a dead hawk, or doing both at once.

~~~
jboles
It's not clear whether the volunteer or the hawk is holding the dead crow in
the last case.

~~~
jboles
Why was I down voted? Read the sentence again. Both meanings are syntactically
correct. When I first read the article I took the 3rd case to be that the hawk
was holding the dead crow, with the human standing nearby.

------
slavik81
I seem to have found a video of a magpie funeral. They're also corvids, like
crows and ravens.

[https://youtu.be/60Zg9sGnQf8](https://youtu.be/60Zg9sGnQf8)

~~~
keenerd
I am not an ornithologist, but my first impression is that it isn't a
"funeral". Birds do occasionally hit stuff and this seems more like a response
to a possibly unconscious bird. Poke it, yell a bunch, maybe it'll come to.
When the bird is actually dead the instinctive response is prolonged?

------
conjectures
Very interesting. I'd love to know how many calls were made to the local
police station reporting people in creepy masks standing around with dead
crows.

------
Speakeasys
That mask is super creepy.

~~~
nathancahill
That picture is straight out of an indie horror movie.

------
btbuildem
> For instance, in 2008 Marzluff had researchers in caveman masks capture
> crows while others in a control mask—Dick Cheney—let the birds be. Afterward
> the birds ignored the harmless Cheneys but scolded and chased the cavemen,
> and did so for years.

I feel like they should have swapped the masks around for this one.

------
Dowwie
Ravens played a role in norse mythology, serving as "shamanic helping spirits"
who scout for the god Odin.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huginn_and_Muninn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huginn_and_Muninn)

------
douche
Growing up with a large garden out in the country, we always had a lot of
trouble with crows picking newly-sprouted corn. They'd go right along the row
and pluck out the seedlings to eat the kernel at the root. At least, they
would, until my father would manage to get one with the shotgun and then hang
it up from the scarecrow. After that, there wouldn't be a crow in sight for
months.

They are smart creatures.

------
viggity
More anecdata - there were a bunch of crows who were harassing my elderly
outdoor cat. So I grabbed my BB gun and shot one from my bedroom window. The
two other companions flew off, but when I went to go dispose of the body, 6
more birds flew over to see what I was doing. Cawing at me the whole time.

I didn't want to kill the damn thing. But, our whole street was crow free for
at least 2 years.

------
MistahKoala
Gulls behave similarly, being 'attracted' to predators that have caught a gull
and circling in order to learn about their behaviour.

[https://web.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Gul...](https://web.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Gulls_Are_Attracted.html)

------
runamok
I saw a crow get hit by a car right in front of me with a thump because it
moved too slow from a mid street meal. Instantly probably 6 or so crows
started shrieking and came over to the incident. It was quite sad because it
seemed they could tell that something terrible had happened.

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gerbilly
Reminds of this video where a crow and a feral kitten are friends. The crow
even feeds the kitten!

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fAGzY9rnaA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fAGzY9rnaA)

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codezero
I've rescued several injured crows and every time I've been followed closely
by at least two other crows as I brought the crow to my car. Amazingly
intelligent and social creatures.

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ionwake
Are there any academics here who could shed light on who is considered more
intelligent - a Crow or a Raven?

I am aware Ravens are known to mimic sounds more than Crows, unless I am
mistaken.

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nxzero
Reminds me of this video:

Epic Cat Fight w/ Two Birds

[http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WQd9kuXpUYU](http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WQd9kuXpUYU)

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tripzilch
So, does this mean we should change the collective noun to "a murder-
investigation of crows"?

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tomdan
I see you liked the article I linked on reddit yesterday :D

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mozey
Gives new meaning to the word "scarecrow"

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peshkira
...for the watch

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trevorg75
Murders investigating murders.

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obj-g
That pun at the end.

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lossolo
It should have 2015 in name.

~~~
j1vms
Not sure why you are getting downvoted, the article is indeed dated Oct. 2015.
See the URL and/or do a search in Google News.

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mathieuu
In some regions, they also burn the body to make sure they don't come back
from the dead.

