Crows and Ravens

Raven U.S. FWS

• They remember your face. Once a crow is mad at you and it will remember it doesn’t like you for ages and will raise a real fuss when it sees you.
• They conspire. Crows communicate at a high level with one another using dozens of different “caws.” This helps them organize to pursue certain food sources (Farmer Brown’s corn), post lookouts and chase off predators.
• They use tools and can plan ahead. Crows have been seen using twigs to pry open food or to check on whether a snake is alive but their most unbelievable feat is to lay hard-to-open nuts on a road and wait for a vehicle to come by and break it open. Now THAT is scary!

Spiders

They are so frightening to so many people that their images have become a constant for Halloween. They even have their own psychiatric condition: Arachnophobia

Giant Spider Web Texas FWP

• You can’t get away from them. There are about 70,000 species in the world.
• Black widow spiders may be the scariest because they often cannibalize they mates.
• Some species of tarantulas can fight off predators by shooting irritating hairs at them.
• What might be the largest spider web ever was found in a Texas Park a few years back and covered several trees.  It was so big it drew thousands of visitors.
• The true spiders of the order Araneae comprise the largest group of carnivorous animals on Earth.

Bats

Bats have become associated with blood sucking vampires. They are mostly nocturnal and certain species (vampire bats) do indeed draw blood in small amounts from animals for food. This make them seem scary but they do not harm humans. There are other things about bats you should know.

• They are the only flying mammal. A flying squirrel does not actually fly, it glides.
• The largest bat (the Malaysian flying fox) has a six foot wingspan
• One bat will eat 2,000 to 6,000 insects per night.
• The Honduran white bat, a colorful snow-white, cuts leaves to make “tents” to protect its small colonies from drenching jungle rains.
  

  Flyin Fox Bat Cns. Intnl.

• Sadly, North America’s bat colonies are besieged by a life-threatening fungus that is wiping out entire colonies. Scientists are working hard to find cures and solutions.

Black Cats

They are associated with bad luck.  If one crosses your path, legend has it you are in for hard times or a mishap. Black domestic cats are fairly common in the U.S. but you have to go pretty far to find a true American black cat. The Jaguar may be the best candidate.

• It is the largest cat in the Americas at 200 to 250 pounds and six to eight feet in length.  It roams the forests of Central and South America but a few of them live in the Southwest U.S.
• There are black jaguars in the wild whose darker color is due to a variation known as melanism.  The basic spots are still there but are just harder to see.
• Jaguars are terrific swimmers and (like bats) they mostly hunt at night.
• The jaguar’s name means “a beast that kills its prey with a single bound.”  That is pretty scary too.
• The North American Jaguar is extremely rare and highly endangered and will require more territory to survive.

Halloween is surely a time for family fun and maybe even a little outdoor (spooky) time with the kids.  But it is also a time to appreciate the fascinating and complex creatures that we love to make us scared.  These “scary” creatures pose no real threat to humans and many are suffering from the effects of habitat loss, pollution and more.  National Wildlife Federation is working every day to protect our most endangered species for many Halloweens to come. Here is how to support and contribute to NWF.

Authors John Marzluff and Tony Angell take us through a journey of the intelligence, speech, insight, fun, passion, grief and risk which comprises the life of an average crow. Crows are many times associated with fear or annoyance but what lies within is more than meets the eye and ear.

Gifts of the Crow by John Marzluff and Tony Angell

Join in the Conversation

As I sit here writing I can hear the loud cawing of crows outside my open door. A small flock glides by to light on the roof of a boat outside. From their perch they have a good view of the kayakers that pass by and must put up with their annoyed chatter as they paddle swiftly past. My initial reaction is to find their loud conversation a nuisance and distraction; now however I find myself fascinated by the way they interact with each other and the world around them.

While I can’t guarantee that their cawing will turn to song in your ears, The Gifts of the Crow will insure that you never look at them the same way again. From talking to gift giving there is nothing common about the common crow.

The following are questions to guide you through your discussion about this book. Please use the comments section of this blog to join in the conversation and share your thoughts about the book and about crows.

• In chapter 5 the authors introduce us to a number of grateful crows who seem to use gifts of dead rats, seed and candied hearts to endear themselves to the humans who feed and take care of them. The authors argue that this type of behavior shows that they have insight; crows understand that they will be rewarded by their gift giving. Do you think that this shows insight or are these ‘gifts’ simply coincidental?
• Speech is not something that many people would associate with crows but students at the University of Montana in 1964 would have another opinion. The calls of ‘hear boy!’ that brought dogs racing through campus that year were from none other than a local crow (pg 41). This is one of many examples given of crows and other birds using language to their advantage. Do these birds really understand what they are saying or do they simply mimic us without having an intended consequence?
• Here at the National Wildlife Federation we advocate for children getting outside to play and interact with their environment but human children are not the only ones who enjoy playing outside. From surfing to pulling pranks on neighborhood pets crows seem to enjoy having fun almost as much as we humans do! What examples of this have you seen in your own life?
• In the final chapter the authors argue that we should be able to keep crows as pets. Would you ever consider sharing your home with a crow?

Chimp with termite stick: Photo INHS

But, such “in the moment” uses of tools do not really capture the extraordinary and often surprising abilities of some animals to think ahead and use tools in innovative ways.

Nutcrackers, Alarms, Depth Testers, Floss, Nose Guards and More

Crows offer one such example. They have made a clever adaptation to modern society through the use of automobiles. While they surely don’t drive, they have figured out that the crushing weight of a car or truck can crack walnuts and other delicacies. Crows will place their prospective treats on the road and wait for a passing vehicle. They know exactly where the wheels are most likely to fall on the roadway!

Crows, considered by many to be among the brightest of creatures, have also been seen dropping stones into a water pitcher with a narrow neck in order to raise the water level sufficiently to take a drink.

Orangutans have made an adaptation that uses leaves to ward off predators. They don’t shake the leaves at the menace but, instead, make “whistles” from the leaves that make a shrill sound in an effort to scare the threat away.

As a safety measure, gorillas and other apes will approach a body of water with a stick specifically selected to test the depth of the water they would like to cross. They don’t swim so the stick becomes an important survival tool.

In Thailand, macaques (small apes) will use their stealth to pluck hair from the heads of tourists and others and use it to floss their teeth. Adult macaques have been seen applying this tooth cleaning method in elaborate slow motion as a way to teach this dental care to juveniles.

Herons use small shiny fish as lures, credit Jorja Feldman

Dolphins, often considered to be one of the most intelligent of all mammals have been seen pulling off pieces of sponge, wrapping it around their beaks and then using to forage along a sandy sea bottom for food.  The sponge protects their beaks from irritations and abrasions.

Perhaps the most elaborate “tool” user is the bowerbird of Australia.  It collects shiny objects such as bottle caps and pieces of glass to make an elaborate (and wholly attractive) nest that will lure a mate.  Many days will go into the preparation of the nest and only the finest shiny items will be selected.

These insights into how wild creatures innovate and think ahead can help us all to appreciate their extraordinary lives and abilities.

For more EXTRA-ordinary wildlife facts, check out the National Wildlife Week website >>

Click here to view the embedded video.

Crows belong to the corvid family, an intelligent group of birds that also includes ravens, magpies and jays. To learn about the American crow, read Something to Crow About.

If you’ve created a backyard haven for birds and other wildlife, make it an official NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat site today. Gift certifications are also available. >>

Blane Klemek, of the Bemidji Pioneer reports:

“An interesting part of crows’ behavior is their sense of community with one another. It’s no mystery to anyone familiar with crows that these birds tend to form large and noisy flocks.

But what might not be common knowledge is how cooperative some populations or “family groups” of crows tend to be when it comes to brood-rearing. For instance, research has shown that even though crows become reproductively mature at about 2 years of age, they don’t necessarily form pair-bonds, mate and raise their own offspring immediately.

It turns out that some crows will help raise their own siblings, staying within their parents’ territory for five years or longer while assisting with parental duties such as feeding nestlings and acting as sentinels.

While the intelligence of crows is not disputed, it is difficult to study and learn just how intelligent wild crows really are. Reports exist that crows can distinguish between a man carrying a gun and a man carrying a stick. Such an incident is related by the late Ernest Thompson Seton, who, in his popular book “Wild Animals I Have Known,” wrote about “Silverspot, the Story of a Crow.”

In the story, Seton relates how Silverspot would fly above him and vocalize to his flock. To test Silverspot’s intelligence, Seton, during separate times while standing on a bridge that spanned a ravine, stood alone one day, took with him a stick on another day, and stood on the bridge holding a gun on the third day. When he held the gun, Seton wrote, “… at once (Silverspot) cried out, ‘Great danger — a gun.’ ‘ca-ca-ca-ca Caw!’ His lieutenant repeated the cry, and every crow in the troop began to tower and scatter from the rest.”

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