“If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be crows.”
-Social reformer Henry Ward Beecher (1813 to 1887).
Mr. Beecher, an obvious crow lover, may have a point. In response to the killing of crows in the Shuswap (letter by H. Stoddart, April 13) I maintain that the person killing crows must have more time on his hands than brains.
Crows kill rats and mice, flies and wasps and clean up garbage.
Without them, says George Clulow, president of the British Columbia Field Ornithologists, we’d have a heck of a mess. Crows are smart. They solve problems by employing many of the same cognitive skills that we use, and their intelligence rivals that of the great apes, as do the other corvids – ravens, jays, and magpies –- write John Marzluff and co-author Tony Angell in the 2013 book Gifts of the Crow.
Author Candace Savage concurs: “If one species of crows routinely makes and uses tools – a behavior so remarkable that it was until recently thought to be uniquely human – then what might the rest of those swaggering black-clad wise guys be up to?” Crows: Encounters with the Wise Guys, Greystone Books, 2005.
Crows study and learn from us. Let’s be a better example for those intelligent, fun-loving, crafty, ingenious characters.
Kay McCracken