Gregory's Server
 22 comments
 @SmudgeTheInsultCat Making friends with a flock of corvids (preferably a raven, rook, or crow) is on my bucket list. Such cool creatures.  @IntentionallyBLANK @SmudgeTheInsultCat Australian Magpies aren't corvids but are at least as intelligent. I wouldn't be at all surprised if their warbles contain significantly more information than the average bird call. I generally treat them like people. Tiny, skittish people who are known to hold grudges and pass them down to their offspring. I do my best not to piss them off and I'm pretty sure my dog's got the idea that I don't want her chasing them. @StarkRG @SmudgeTheInsultCat I hear you, and will also say, if I can't make friends with them I at least hope not to piss them off. I love that they can sort of talk, too. https://youtu.be/N5YbWHrnjrg @StarkRG @SmudgeTheInsultCat Sorry, I'm not that well acquainted with birds, but crows/ravens can also mimic humans which is a neat trick, I think. @IntentionallyBLANK @SmudgeTheInsultCat Definitely. I think Australian Magpies can do a bit of human mimickry, but I don't know that I've ever seen it. They have a pretty extensive vocabulary on their own without borrowing from humans, though. https://youtu.be/oh28ycs6LK0  original text appears to have been been picked from results of a variety of studies, although the real studies didn't show as much co-operation between the crows, but proved they could modify the tools themselves. This is the first one and this it the second (published by a researcher called Christopher Bird π ) @SmudgeTheInsultCat I donβt have the reference handy. But this reminds me of how we thought deer had an βalphaβ when in fact the herd was voting and we missed it because our brains see so much through the lens of hierarchy and conflict. @sng @SmudgeTheInsultCat Or how the notion that wolves have an alpha was based on how they behave in crowded conditions in captivity. https://sciencenorway.no/ulv/wolf-packs-dont-actually-have-alpha-males-and-alpha-females-the-idea-is-based-on-a-misunderstanding/1850514  @SmudgeTheInsultCat Looks like social display of intelligence is important to these birds. They're clearly #Gamers, #Intellectuals, #Engineers or members of #BirdMensa. @SmudgeTheInsultCat @briellebouquet one of my favorite categories of human centric science is when scientists assume animals will display intelligence by fighting with each other but they end up working together instead, much to the shock of (surely) cis het white male scientists. @secant2 @SmudgeTheInsultCat i think most people default to cooperative behaviour too outside of corrupted systems like the one we live in. but yea, lol at the researchers' cynical prediction and lack of imagination |
@SmudgeTheInsultCat crows are social birds, unlike humans who live in a
hierarchy, crows live in a cooperative group. Which means, once humans have murdered eachother down to the last man, woman, and child, crows will still be living happily, and peacefully on planet earth because they are smarter than we are.