Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Oops! That crow remembers me!!

If you have ever thrown a stone at a crow beware! It will remember your face and whats more it will spread its distress about you to its mob too!. It is shown that the crow might even remember your face for lifetime! 

According to a new study published in the latest Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a crow will remember the 'threatening human' and even scolds bringing along with it its relatives and strangers to mob you. 

Bothered crows may at first "give harsh calls, which we call 'scolds' that attract other crows who are nearby to join in the mob," according to study co-author John Marzluff. "The mob of two to 15 birds hounds us, sometimes diving from the sky to within a few meters or less -- This pursuit lasts about 100 meters (328 feet) as we walk away."

The authors say that once rubbed the face of a threatening human will stay in its memory for at least five years.

"Our study shows the memory lasts at least five years and counting," Marzluff said. "Individual crows that are adults can live 15-40 years in the wild (most die when young, but those that make it to adulthood can live a long time) and they probably remember important associations they have formed for much of their lives."

Studies of such kind provide us insight into social learning among city dwelling birds and how they are accommodating with us. Also it highlights the marvelous tool which only we humans have to our advantage: language for communication. Birds and animals only have vocalization and other gestures.    

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.