[HN Gopher] Photographer captures 'odd but exciting' crow behavi...
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Photographer captures 'odd but exciting' crow behaviour known as
anting
Author : pgrote
Score : 63 points
Date : 2021-06-06 20:51 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cbc.ca)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cbc.ca)
| 14 wrote:
| I have noticed crows land on the ant hills on my property but
| never let me get close enough to get a picture. I am also on
| Vancouver Island. I carry a bag of unshelled peanuts in my car
| and when I see a crow toss one. They love peanuts and are very
| intelligent animals.
| lioeters wrote:
| > [A]nting is..where birds rub insects, usually ants, on their
| feathers and skin.
|
| > Some birds will sit still on an anthill and patiently allow the
| creatures to crawl freely through their feathers. At other times
| they have been seen to pick the ants up with their beaks and rub
| themselves with the tiny insects.
|
| > Sensing a threat, the ants shoot a spray of formic acid from
| their abdomens or anal glands which gets absorbed into the bird's
| body and acts as a natural insecticide.
|
| > ..A widely held theory..maintains that birds use the ants to
| soothe irritated skin during periods of heavy feather molting,
| while another theory suggests it controls parasites which live in
| the bird's plumage.
| ggm wrote:
| you left off "self-stimulation" -but, other comments note Crows
| are amongst the most intelligent of animals. I know it is an
| outsider theory, but..
| tpmx wrote:
| I live in a place where I get to witness epic battles between a
| murder of crows and a colony of seagulls on a daily basis this
| time of the year. The seagulls are nesting on the roofs of nearby
| houses. The crows are trying to eat the seagull hatchlings.
|
| It's kind of fascinating to watch. It seems like the crows are
| trying new strategies every new day. The much larger seagulls are
| wasting lots of energy in a kinda stupid way, the crows are
| chilling most of the time.
| monkeycantype wrote:
| That sounds like an awesome nature documentary. Where is this?
| xanadohnt wrote:
| Crow are the full embodiment of "evil genius".
| Udik wrote:
| Bird equivalent of Jacuzzi.
| sgt wrote:
| People can try anting too. Do you want to try and report back
| to HN with your findings?
| miohtama wrote:
| Here a Finnish teenager demostrates anting challenge. The
| video is a report itself.
|
| https://youtu.be/iHqPmafs3gk
| Gravityloss wrote:
| Before cosmetics were available, some people stuck their face
| to an ants nest, I think the theory was that that could help
| peeling dead skin.
| IncRnd wrote:
| This doesn't seem realistic.
|
| Men, most who don't wear cosmetics, don't spontaneously
| stick their faces against ant hills. The women who don't
| wear cosmetics, either, don't seem to cover their faces in
| ants.
| h0l0cube wrote:
| Crows (and other animals) are known to learn behaviors
| from each other, it doesn't need to be genetically
| encoded
| dylan604 wrote:
| What kind of ants are we talking about here, because I
| cannot imagine anything good from doing this with a fire
| ant mound.
| ehmmmmmmmm wrote:
| I used to use "anting" to refer to the behavior of cyclists
| who stand on the pedals and don't sit firmly planted on their
| seats, as if they have ants in their pants.
|
| And then there were "beeing" which are the cyclists who do
| the above while also rocking the cycle from left to right --
| that's more like bees in their pants.
| belter wrote:
| Crows actions are on par or exceed Octopus level of smartness
|
| "Smart Crow uses cars to crack nuts in Akita, Japan"
| https://youtu.be/NenEdSuL7QU
|
| "Are Crows the Ultimate Problem Solvers?"
| https://youtu.be/cbSu2PXOTOc
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(page generated 2021-06-06 23:00 UTC)