In pre pandemic days I wrote about Canuck the Crow who was a Vancouver institution. Canuck was a human-reared crow living on the east side making his presence known to the locals, including neighbourhood friends, such as those delivering the mail and local passers-by. He was also implicated in a police investigation for taking a knife away from a crime scene, supposedly because it was shiny and he liked it. Canuck the Crow also still has his own twitter account. He sadly disappeared last Fall .
Canuck the Crow was so popular that in one of CBC Civic reporter Justin McElroy’s always amazing polls, Canuck was voted the unofficial brand ambassador for Vancouver, handily “defeating” actor Michael J. Fox for the honour.
In pandemic times when being outside has been so necessary and meaningful for people self-isolating, watching the behaviour of crows (or how they watch you) has taken on a new meaning. In my area there are crows that follow walkers and cyclists, and loudly admonish people for stopping to talk. They seem to recognize people and can live a very long time.
The NPR have just produced this clip with Dr. Kaeli Swift who studied crow behaviour at the University of Washington. Her findings show that like Canuck the Crow, crows can memorize faces, and if they have a “scary experience” (like being trapped, banded and released) they remember that individual face. If that face returns, Dr. Swift says crows “would alarm-call, they would dive-bomb that person.” The crow also teaches other crows which people are “dangerous’ and they can remember faces for years.
Crows are also known to “mob” when a crow dies, making loud scolds. Dr. Swift notes that what the crows are doing is trying to establish the reason that the crow died, and will be more cautious about using that area. If you are seen carrying a dead crow into the area, experiments show that the crow will indeed remember the face of who did that, and that person is “guilty by association”.
And despite what you learned in school about primates being the only tool using animal, New Caledonian crows create hooked tools out of twigs to burrow out bugs that are in wood.
You can hear the whole conversation at this link.
There is also a wonderful documentary about Canuck the Crow and his special friendship with Vancouverite Shawn. If you have not seen this 18 minute documentary you can on this YouTube link below.
Image with permission from artist Frank Ducote
