Sunday May 27, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

Crows remember colors for a year: study

National Dec. 09, 2011 - 05:27AM JST ( 8 )

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8 Comments

1

MaboDofuIsSpicyDec. 09, 2011 - 09:09AM JST

I love crows. I saved one once from a mean alley cat.
1

mitoguitarmanDec. 09, 2011 - 09:18AM JST

Me too Mabo. I feed them, but the neighbors all put out fake "dead crows" to scare them away. It doesn't work. They are too smart for these anaesthetized suburbanites here.
1

SerranoDec. 09, 2011 - 10:07AM JST

"Crows are a major nuisance... they rummage through rubbish"

I don't mind that so much as their incessant squawking. And the other day two of them scared away the poor cat that likes to sleep on my veranda.
0

cleoDec. 09, 2011 - 10:15AM JST

This study shows that there is no good way (to counter crows)

How so? If they remember colours, just associate a certain colour with something nasty like a loud noise/bad taste/electric shock/vibration and paint all the towers and power cables that colour. It works in the natural world - bugs etc that are bright colours tend to be poisonous/bad eating, so that a bird that tries to eat one remembers not to eat the same kind of bug again.
0

AylerDec. 09, 2011 - 11:07AM JST

If they remember colours, just associate a certain colour with something nasty like a loud noise/bad taste/electric shock/vibration and paint all the towers and power cables that colour.

Yes, I agree. Let's begin a nationwide catch and release programme. We'll need to capture every crow in Japan, keep them for several months of training and then release them. Oh we'll also need to replace every power cable and paint every tower across the country. Easy-peesy...
0

cleoDec. 09, 2011 - 11:19AM JST

Easy-peesy...

Presumably the towers get painted periodically anyway to keep rust at bay, cables get replaced as they get older. Put the aversives on every tower in a central colour-coded area and the crows will learn to avoid the colour. As the colour-coded area is gradually extended, the density of aversives can be thinned out so that not every tower needs to be 'primed', the crows will avoid it anyway. No need to have a catch-and-release programme. (Knowing Japan, that would start and end as a catch-and-destroy programmme anyway.)

There are lots of crows where I live. They're beautiful birds.
-1

MaboDofuIsSpicyDec. 09, 2011 - 12:10PM JST

I had a crow attack my head once. It bled a lot, but I was on my way to the doctor for gout meds, so all was cool. I forgave the crow.

I love the crows at the beach too. They follow the Tombi (Big Kites) and clean up the remains from when a Tonbi steals some food right of the hands of some unsuspecting person eating and not watching their back.

There are two different kinds of crows in Kanto. Tokyo mostly has the crows with the larger beak, compared to the crows in Yamato-city where I live. I do not think they can breed together. Down at the beach, both hang out.

They also raid my bags and open zippers to get to my wax. Smart birds. Love them.
-1

Elbuda MexicanoDec. 11, 2011 - 08:46PM JST

Sorry guys, I hate crows and want to kill as many as possible, since here in Japan people are to busy to get real trash cans, so we get our trash all messed up by CROWS. Sorry to hear about your head there and that crow?? Gout meds huh?? Stay away from BEER! Purin tai is what causes gout!