Previously posted on Amazon. Several people have pointed out to me that a flock of crows is called "murder" in English!
I'm not sure why this product is titled “A Murder of Crows”, almost like an
episode of “Game of Thrones” or some other suitably dramatic fantasy story.
While it's indeed a very interesting documentary, featuring famous crow expert
John Marzluff, it says very little about crow mortality and absolutely nothing
about “murder”!
Most of the documentary explores the intelligence of these black, ominous-looking passerines. American Crows have an uncanny ability to recognize specific humans in a crowd. Apparently, the crows remember their faces. Several crows in Seattle have inherited their parents' fear and loathing of a mysterious humanoid creature who "threatened" their nest, really Marzluff wearing a special mask for research purposes. The crows have long memories, too, since they remember Marzluff's mask after several years!
The documentary claims that crows can “explain” new threats to the mates in their flock, but it's not clear how this is done if the other crows don't actually observe the threat? Unless I'm mistaken, Marzluff says in one of his books that a colleague of his was mobbed by every crow in South Carolina, including at places he had never visited before! Perhaps some of the crows were the same. Or perhaps something *really* strange was going on... ;-)
The super-intelligent New Caledonian Crow is also featured, and so is the European Carrion Crow and the Asian Jungle Crow. It turns out that that all of them are pretty smart, and the enthusiastic scientists – perhaps inevitably – claim that crows are more clever than parrots. A scientist working with parrots would presumably say the opposite!
My main problem with “A Murder of Crows” (apart from the bizarre title) is that bird intelligence is constantly portrayed as something entirely unexpected and hence sensational. I understand that this may be the dominant paradigm, but it strikes me as absurd and anthropocentric. If evolution is true, we should expect both “transitional” forms of intelligence between the dumb brute and the creative human, and convergent evolution during which intelligence emerges on several different branches of the “Tree of Life”. Intelligence, after all, has survival value (at least among “other animals” – among humans, I sometimes wonder). That a perching bird can understand very simple logic, develop problem-solving capacities or remember human faces may be a bit spooky, but it shouldn't really surprise us…
But yes, I'm a bit partial. I happen to think crows and other corvids are pretty cool! I understand that's a distinct minority position in most subsets of the human population. Ironically, it seems most people would rather have coyotes, wolves or bears stomping around their backyard! How clever *that* might be, is of course an interesting question…
That being said, I gladly award this feast for crow-lovers five stars.
Most of the documentary explores the intelligence of these black, ominous-looking passerines. American Crows have an uncanny ability to recognize specific humans in a crowd. Apparently, the crows remember their faces. Several crows in Seattle have inherited their parents' fear and loathing of a mysterious humanoid creature who "threatened" their nest, really Marzluff wearing a special mask for research purposes. The crows have long memories, too, since they remember Marzluff's mask after several years!
The documentary claims that crows can “explain” new threats to the mates in their flock, but it's not clear how this is done if the other crows don't actually observe the threat? Unless I'm mistaken, Marzluff says in one of his books that a colleague of his was mobbed by every crow in South Carolina, including at places he had never visited before! Perhaps some of the crows were the same. Or perhaps something *really* strange was going on... ;-)
The super-intelligent New Caledonian Crow is also featured, and so is the European Carrion Crow and the Asian Jungle Crow. It turns out that that all of them are pretty smart, and the enthusiastic scientists – perhaps inevitably – claim that crows are more clever than parrots. A scientist working with parrots would presumably say the opposite!
My main problem with “A Murder of Crows” (apart from the bizarre title) is that bird intelligence is constantly portrayed as something entirely unexpected and hence sensational. I understand that this may be the dominant paradigm, but it strikes me as absurd and anthropocentric. If evolution is true, we should expect both “transitional” forms of intelligence between the dumb brute and the creative human, and convergent evolution during which intelligence emerges on several different branches of the “Tree of Life”. Intelligence, after all, has survival value (at least among “other animals” – among humans, I sometimes wonder). That a perching bird can understand very simple logic, develop problem-solving capacities or remember human faces may be a bit spooky, but it shouldn't really surprise us…
But yes, I'm a bit partial. I happen to think crows and other corvids are pretty cool! I understand that's a distinct minority position in most subsets of the human population. Ironically, it seems most people would rather have coyotes, wolves or bears stomping around their backyard! How clever *that* might be, is of course an interesting question…
That being said, I gladly award this feast for crow-lovers five stars.
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