Okay I haven’t been in here in a while & I’m well aware that some of you will hammer me for doing something I probably shouldn’t do.

Occasionally I feed the Corvids that live in the trees across the road a sausage (cooked) that has spent too much time in the fridge for me to eat it. I used to just chuck them in the bin, but I thought that might be a bit of a waste. So, now & then I’ll slice up the sausage really thin…. 0.8mm… & scatter it on the back or front lawn. This may happen once every six to eight weeks.

I did this today very late in the afternoon. In fact it was close to getting dark. I was sitting at a bench in my shed & I noticed a Raven rummaging around in several of my wife’s potted plants. I investigated & found that the little bastard had been burying slices of sausage under the soil in the pots

Are they that intelligent that they will stash food in order that only they can retrieve it later or are most animals like that?

Gee you’re a mongrel.

:-)

Bulgarian Umbrella said:

Okay I haven’t been in here in a while & I’m well aware that some of you will hammer me for doing something I probably shouldn’t do.

Occasionally I feed the Corvids that live in the trees across the road a sausage (cooked) that has spent too much time in the fridge for me to eat it. I used to just chuck them in the bin, but I thought that might be a bit of a waste. So, now & then I’ll slice up the sausage really thin…. 0.8mm… & scatter it on the back or front lawn. This may happen once every six to eight weeks.

I did this today very late in the afternoon. In fact it was close to getting dark. I was sitting at a bench in my shed & I noticed a Raven rummaging around in several of my wife’s potted plants. I investigated & found that the little bastard had been burying slices of sausage under the soil in the pots

Are they that intelligent that they will stash food in order that only they can retrieve it later or are most animals like that?

Dogs
Squirrels

and then there’s Homo sapiens but

you’re right, COVID-19 is quite intelligent in stashing its food source, it’s just lethal enough to scare people into trying not to catch it now, thereby ensuring that they have a chance to catch it later

Corvids? Yeah I fkn hate em. I reckon you’re doing a top job there in your efforts to poison the bastards.

Could you maybe set up your biggest Tesla coil near some wire mesh surrounding the pots?

Just stop feeding them.

Ian said:

Corvids? Yeah I fkn hate em. I reckon you’re doing a top job there in your efforts to poison the bastards.

Could you maybe set up your biggest Tesla coil near some wire mesh surrounding the pots?

Because of my treatment schedule I can’t have a dog.
My only companion now is a Currawong. It’s almost tame enough to handle.

Tamb said:

Ian said:

Corvids? Yeah I fkn hate em. I reckon you’re doing a top job there in your efforts to poison the bastards.

Could you maybe set up your biggest Tesla coil near some wire mesh surrounding the pots?

Because of my treatment schedule I can’t have a dog.
My only companion now is a Currawong. It’s almost tame enough to handle.

Here’s another one..

BoJo’s standup at the UN

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Epik_data_breach

Poor old far right.

Bogsnorkler said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Epik_data_breach

Poor old far right.

The crows are likely more intelligent, by my reading of that.

Bulgarian Umbrella said:

Okay I haven’t been in here in a while & I’m well aware that some of you will hammer me for doing something I probably shouldn’t do.

<snip></snip>

Are they that intelligent that they will stash food in order that only they can retrieve it later or are most animals like that?

you’re questioning the ability of one of the most intelligent
animals on the face of the earth’s using the most primitive
basic survival techniques ever devised? ? ?

Ravens Food caching

forgive me, but I find their swiping/caching antics amusing
(then again, they’re not my flower pots they’re up-ending)

I used to over feed them on purpose just to observe them.
…chalk it up to Easily Amused.

I’ve realised recently that different corvid species have different, what we call, intelligence.

Is it the species from New Caledonia that is smartest? Corvus moneduloides.

On a TV show I’ve seen crows (from New Caledonia) deliberately choose to get food from a human-made puzzle in a way that the humans did not want or expect. Because they know that the experiment ends if they solve the puzzle the way the humans want, but the experiment is reset and they get more food if they solve it by a way that is unexpected.

On the other hand, I’ve seen a local Little Raven turning over a golf ball trying to find a way in to get at the yolk.

and I find amusement in a chess like game of feeding the intended species
then noticing a crow surreptitiously observing from afar as they watch the excess
being cached then flying in to steal and re-cache, and the original animal do likewise.

it gets further involved when they employ false caching by simply pretending to move food
or seemingly cache morsels in one spot then carrying it to an different spot like a shell game.

It usually ends in either giving up & trusting to confusion or a 3rd party making off with the goodies

Bulgarian Umbrella said:

Okay I haven’t been in here in a while & I’m well aware that some of you will hammer me for doing something I probably shouldn’t do.

Occasionally I feed the Corvids that live in the trees across the road a sausage (cooked) that has spent too much time in the fridge for me to eat it. I used to just chuck them in the bin, but I thought that might be a bit of a waste. So, now & then I’ll slice up the sausage really thin…. 0.8mm… & scatter it on the back or front lawn. This may happen once every six to eight weeks.

I did this today very late in the afternoon. In fact it was close to getting dark. I was sitting at a bench in my shed & I noticed a Raven rummaging around in several of my wife’s potted plants. I investigated & found that the little bastard had been burying slices of sausage under the soil in the pots

Are they that intelligent that they will stash food in order that only they can retrieve it later or are most animals like that?

The ferret hides food if she is feed inside so she can retrieve it later.
Corvids are highly intelligent birds, tool users, learn from seeing others doing something, even cooperation to get into something.
The news had something about parrots learning to open bin lids and others copied it