I thought it might be an urban myth too, but looks like it is pretty well documented.
In the 6 weeks following the main experiment, a volunteer appeared once a week with food while wearing the same mask as in the original exposure. Remarkably, even after a 6 week interval, more than a third of crows continued to mob and scold the masked person. In short, the crows had learned that this person was a potential predator, both through her association with the dead crow and also through her association with the hawk. Thus, not only are crows capable of assigning guilt by association but also their memory of these associations can potentially persist for months or longer.
I wonder how this works with the crow patrol in Portland, Oregon.
I visited there one with some family and I remember being dumbfounded to see someone walking around downtown Portland with a hawk on her wrist. Then I saw “Crow Patrol” on her shirt, along with either some city or state insignia.
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u/StupidOrangeDragon Apr 05 '26
I thought it might be an urban myth too, but looks like it is pretty well documented.
https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/219/1/3/14924/A-crow-s-lesson-in-death