According to researcher Kaeli
Swift of the University of Washington's Avian Conservation Laboratory, crows
hold "funerals." When they see a corpse of their own kind they gather
together and squawk loudly. To determine what they may be doing, Swift
displayed a taxidermied dead crow to other crows. On some days though, she wore
a creepy mask and wig. After multiple experiments with and without her disguise
or the dead bird, the crows appeared to remember "the experience with the
mask and dead crow and now connected the area with danger." From Deep Look:
And here’s what Swift said makes
that really interesting: These new mobs (she encountered even weeks later)
contained crows that had never seen the masked Swift with the dead crow. But
they still learned to avoid the masked figure.
Learning directly from each
other, rather than through individual experience, is called social learning.
“By participating in these
funerals, crows can get information about new dangers without taking the risk,”
Swift said.
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