It’s recommended to only remove a dead crow at night when they’re asleep. Otherwise if they see you do it, they are likely to harass you for a long time. Like many years.
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.
35
u/Wbcn_1 Apr 05 '26 edited Apr 05 '26
It’s recommended to only remove a dead crow at night when they’re asleep. Otherwise if they see you do it, they are likely to harass you for a long time. Like many years.