Genius Bird

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This interesting National Geographic video shows how Bernd Heinrich designed an experiment to test the intelligence of ravens [2:07].

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"I do not yet want to form a hypothesis to test, because as soon as you make a hypothesis, you become prejudiced. Your mind slides into a groove, and once it is in that groove, has difficulty noticing anything outside of it. During this time, my sense must be sharp; that is the main thing...
"We then try to justify what we do by trying to make it sound as if it has some "useful" application. But, really, we do it because it is fun. Nature is entertainment-the greatest show on earth. And that is not trivial, because what is life, if it isn't fun?
I came across this slide show by Christopher Benfey at Slate earlier this summer. It's a series of photographs by the German photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher.
“Mapping out the elements in a star is like reading its DNA. We’re using those DNA readings to decode the history of the Milky Way from the stars that we can observe today.” -Steven Majewski

There is a wild avocado tree on North Garfield Street in Alhambra, California. (The fruits are very small). When the fruits ripen, the ravens come for a feast. They will defend the tree, trying to drive off unwary pedestrians.

In neighboring San Marino, I've seen ravens at a four-way-stop intersection dropping the acorns from live oaks onto crosswalks, but only on the right side of the road. Here is where cars go the slowest as they come to a stop, and then pull away, breaking the acorn hulls. Cars going over acorns at higher speed shatter them, so apparently ravens like their acorn meat chunky style, not creamy.

Thanks for posting this. I remember seeing it on televsion a long time ago and it stuck with me ever since. It's great to have a copy of it. Thanks again.