Smudge The Insult Cat 🐀
May 8, 2023 at 2:18pmWeb
Show threadLil Crow 🇨🇦 🐦‍⬛🐰May 8, 2023
@SmudgeTheInsultCat crows are social birds, unlike humans who live in a
hierarchy, crows live in a cooperative group. Which means, once humans have murdered eachother down to the last man, woman, and child, crows will still be living happily, and peacefully on planet earth because they are smarter than we are.
Show threadScruffy looking packet herderMay 10, 2023
@SmudgeTheInsultCat I don’t have the reference handy. But this reminds me of how we thought deer had an “alpha” when in fact the herd was voting and we missed it because our brains see so much through the lens of hierarchy and conflict.
Show threadaustin, not your sweet babooMay 10, 2023
@sng @SmudgeTheInsultCat a deer-mocracy
Show threadScruffy looking packet herderMay 11, 2023
@notyoursweetbab @SmudgeTheInsultCat LOL
Show threadJoborgMay 10, 2023
@sng @SmudgeTheInsultCat Or how the notion that wolves have an alpha was based on how they behave in crowded conditions in captivity. https://sciencenorway.no/ulv/wolf-packs-dont-actually-have-alpha-males-and-alpha-females-the-idea-is-based-on-a-misunderstanding/1850514
Wolf packs don’t actually have alpha males and alpha females, <br>the idea is based on a misunderstanding

The researcher who introduced this term tried to clear the confusion up two decades ago, but the myth still lives on.

ScienceNorway
Show threadScruffy looking packet herderMay 11, 2023
@SmudgeTheInsultCat @joborg Yup
Show threadScruffy looking packet herderMay 11, 2023
@SmudgeTheInsultCat @joborg You wanna go on a whole trip? https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/peace_among_primates
Peace Among Primates

Anyone who says peace is not part of human nature knows too little about primates, including ourselves.

Greater Good
Show threadSmudge The Insult Cat 🐀May 12, 2023
@joborg @sng Very interesting. I’m more familiar with wolf packs in Yellowstone where a pack may contain 15 to 20 wolves, and in those stories there certainly seems to be an alpha pair.
Show threadskuaMay 10, 2023

@SmudgeTheInsultCat
They both saw the bent wire as taking priority over getting food.

Looks like social display of intelligence is important to these birds.

They're clearly #Gamers, #Intellectuals, #Engineers or members of #BirdMensa.

Show threadsecant2May 10, 2023
@SmudgeTheInsultCat @briellebouquet one of my favorite categories of human centric science is when scientists assume animals will display intelligence by fighting with each other but they end up working together instead, much to the shock of (surely) cis het white male scientists.
Show threadMarthaMay 11, 2023
@SmudgeTheInsultCat @Call_Me_Glitter
You would understand this.
Show threadder.hansMay 12, 2023

@SmudgeTheInsultCat
@lilithsaintcrow had scientists just asked you they would have saved research money, but we wouldn't have this fun vignette

You would tell it funnier than they did :)

Show threadAndii אַנדִֽיMay 15, 2023
@SmudgeTheInsultCat Ifound this interesting because of the assumptions of the scientists about individuality and not considering cooperation.
Show threadDB SchweinMay 15, 2023
@Andii @SmudgeTheInsultCat
Even their conclusion still has the assumption they used "no verbal communication". I'd be shocked if they didn't make noises; with their bodies, wings, or windpipes...whether we understand or even notice something doesn't make it not exist.
Show threadanubis2814May 15, 2023
@SmudgeTheInsultCat Weird how corvids are more intelligent than most of us. "Hey lets work together" as opposed to what the humans assumed "gimme gimme gimme!"
Show threadLibertyForward1May 15, 2023
@SmudgeTheInsultCat Damned woke crows..