If you found a dead person in the woods, you might be scared, but you would also look for the cause of death, to make sure you weren’t next.
Maybe crows do the same. Crows are intelligent and communicate constantly; each one is aware of the rest. When they are adults it is rare for them to be killed, so when one dies, the rest notice.
Are the crows scared, or is there something deeper?
Kaeli Swift, an expert in the study of crows at the University of Washington, conducted an experiment with these animals and discovered that, upon seeing a dead crow, the living look for the source of the danger and remember the key elements of the experience that will help keep them safe in the future.
The death of a crow is a teaching moment that other crows use to learn that the place and the person responsible are dangerous.
Development of the experiment at the funeral of the crows
Swift visited a park for days, leaving peanuts for the crows; One day she put on a latex mask (crows never forget a face and Swift wasn’t about to be harassed by angry corvids) and a wig with a dead crow on it.
The first bird that saw her raised the alarm, and that triggered a protest: the crows surrounded her and the corpse. It looked like a funeral, although not in human form. She believes that these meetings help the crows detect the dangers that surround them and threaten the safety of the group.
When Swift returned unmasked to the same park and with more peanuts, the crows acted distant and cautious, as if they had learned that there is something dangerous going on in this place.
They still ate the peanuts, but it took them longer to do so; and they did it with suspicion.
When Swift returned with the mask, without the crow’s corpse, the birds began to scream. This reaction was very different from what happened with pigeons in an experiment that Swift carried out in parallel, where the birds did not demonstrate any knowledge that there was a corpse of their own species nearby.
And that is the natural reaction of most species, except for elephants, dolphins, and now, crows.
During the experiment, the crows learned to associate Swift’s mask with danger, known as social learning. Thanks to social learning, knowledge is gained while imitating others.
This behavior also occurs in human beings, who see and compare themselves with others to avoid making the same mistakes.