My daughter-in-law has no especially strong interest in birds and
didn't notice the eye colour.
In respect of Maurits' final point,however, she did notice there was
no last hurried flapping of wings - the bird appeared to
deliberately walk under the car's wheel.
For what it's worth I see that Wikipaedia reports that [as well as
dogs] "ducks, have also drowned themselves.
One duck did so after the death of its mate".
Brian Thorp
On 31/03/2014 8:27 PM, Ann Howarth
wrote:
One of the saddest things I saw many
years ago was on the Boorowa to Frogmore Road where in pouring
(and I mean really pouring rain) a thoroughly bedraggled galah
was sitting perfectly still beside its dead mate on the edge
of the road.
Ann Howarth
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2014 6:51 PM
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Suicide?
I don't think we should dismiss this out of hand either.
Corvids, and other birds, have strong pair bonds, and if this
bird saw its mate being hit by a car, and was sufficiently
distraught, I don't see why it wouldn't step in front of a car.
I have seen Rosellas standing by the body of a dead mate
beside the road, presumably grieving,
John Leonard
I believe that the observation should not be
dismissed out-of-hand. We do tend to anthropomorphise the
world around us and impute actions onto other creatures
which are highly unlikely or even impossible. If this
observation had involved any other type of bird, the answer
would be a categorical 'no'. Corvids, however, have managed
to surprise us on many occasions with their intelligence
(and it's unfortunate that suicide is the domain of the
intelligent).
There are many animals which, when they feel that their time
is nigh, remove themselves from their pack or herd to
die quietly somewhere. Elephants are known to mourn and
grieve their dead relatives, and dogs have starved
themselves to death when their owners die. So it is not
crazy to suggest that an intelligent creature like a raven
would be aware that it is ailing and that it is 'time to
go' without that instinct requiring that it knows what death
is. It would, however, set a precedent, as suicide is
practically unknown outside the realm of humanity. Lemmings
don't rush off cliffs, pilot whales don't beach themselves
in an concerted effort to end their lives, and the
aforementioned dogs don't starve themselves so that they can
be reunited with their owners in heaven.
Ravens are also extremely savvy when it comes to motor
vehicles. They are the least likely of all birds to be run
over, even though they love to hang around on the edge of
roads for the prospect of road-kill. They would have seen
many other animals fall victim to cars, so would know what
would happen if they got in the way of one.
Finally, we have the (naturally subjective) opinion of the
observer, although the raven must have been acting unusually
in the first instance for it to have gained the observer's
attention.
Taking all of this into consideration, we could be
conditioned and say that it was a young and inexperienced,
short-sighted or hungry raven, but maybe, just maybe, this
was one which knew that it was time to die and knew
that getting hit by a big beastly car was a quick way to
go. After all, a bird can hardly end its life by jumping
off a high-rise building!
The accuracy of the observation is the key. Like the case
of the dog in the night, it hinges on how the raven reacted
in the final instant before the car bore down on it. If
there was no last hurried flapping of wings, then it knew
what it was doing. If there was, then it was all just a bad
mistake.
Maurits Zwankhuizen
From: m("dodo.com.au","peterormay");">
To: m("bigpond.com","bthorp1");">
CC: m("canberrabirds.org.au","canberrabirds");">;
m("johnbrown.com.au","jb2904");">;
m("gmail.com","muriel.story");">
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 17:08:26 +1100
Subject: RE: [canberrabirds] Suicide?
I think the raven just got
momentarily distracted by a tasty morsel or
something else.
A friend of mine told me she saw a
Kookaburra pounce on a Willie Wagtail that had been
harassing it for years. The Wiilie dropped down onto
the ground for a tasty morsel and the kooka dropped
down straight after it, took it back up onto a
branch, pounded it against the branch and swallowed
it. Was the Willie tired of living? I don’t think
so.
Peter
From: John
Brown [m("johnbrown.com.au","jb2904");">]
Sent: Sunday, 30 March 2014 5:15 PM
To: muriel story
Cc: Brian Thorp; COG-L
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Suicide?
While quite intelligent, Birds
are a bit far down the evolutionary tree to have the
brain structures required for the kind of emotions,
self-reflection and world view associated with the
kind of self-planned suicides that humans sometimes
demonstrate. At the level of birds we have a range
of associative learning styles, from trial and
error, associative and (in bigger birds at least)
imitation. This bird appears to have taken the Avian
Darwin Award for this year, bring an end to whatever
association had developed in its neural network
which initiated this particular action. Other birds
which use walking out into traffic as a way of
successfully cracking nuts are clearly on a more
adaptive evolutionary track!
Sounds quite significant
behaviour considering a pub out Yanco way had a
standing prize of a slab of ale for anyone who ran
over what all would call a Crow. I understand the
prize has never been claimed.
On Saturday, March 29, 2014, Brian Thorp <m("bigpond.com","bthorp1");">>
wrote:
My daughter-in-law told
me of a strange incident last week in a busy
part of Civic.
There was a raven standing close to the side
of the road who spent about five minutes
carefully and intently watching every car go
by.
Eventually it walked calmly out just as a car
came up, timing it such that the driver could
not avoid killing it.
Does anyone have any likely explanation?
Thanks, Brian
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