The pros and cons of habituation, by SunBôw

The pros and cons of habituation, by SunBôw: Although this post is not directly related to Sasquatch, it concerns inter-species communication. Since I shared a series of posts last year (part 1, part 2 and part 3) about my interactions with crows, I felt like sharing a few updates and reflections.

The pros: Woohoo! After a year and a half of attempts, sporadically I must precise, one of my Crow friends finally succeeded in saying ”Hello” this morning. Well, almost. It will take more practice, as it can only so far difficultly utter the word, which sounds rather like ”Aho”. But it’s a remarkable feat for an elderly Crow to learn to speak another language. They have picked up and imitated the clucking sounds I use to converse with them, but these smart birds just signified that they are ready to learn the next trick. This two-way exchange and communication has been highly interesting and enlightening.

This week I found out that I might unknowingly have banded with the pirates of the neighborhood. Since I don’t want to domesticate wildlife nor create a dependency, I usually stop feeding them in the warm season, when food is more abundant and easy to find. But after a few days without their daily breakfast, I caught my local murder snatching chicks from the blackbirds nest, with the poor blackbirds trying to chase those bigger buggers, but in vain.

It was a bit of a heartbreaking scene, a grim display of how Nature can sometimes be cruel. But this eternal dilemma and zen koan suggests that it would be as cruel to prevent a predator from hunting to eat and feed its own chicks or cubs. It is still nesting season, so the Crows have many mouths to feed, until the chicks can fly off the nest and find their own food. So this prompted me to keep serving them their daily breakfast until the young ones have their flight lesson. This way, it might help save a few birds in the hood.

The cons: The downsides of habituation are various. First, the quality of the food served can influence the wildlife’s health. Crows are naturally scavengers with a pretty tough digestive system, but they are pretty much omnivorous, although they are not fond of vegetables in general, which doesn’t mean that all we can give them is good for them. Once the trust bond is established, they will eat just about anything you serve them, but I noticed that leftovers that are too old, bread with mold or stuffs too sweet don’t benefit them. So when deciding to feed wildlife, we have to be aware and careful about the quality of the food we serve the wild critters.

The other thing is the risk to create a dependency. It is good to take breaks with feeding them, when the weather is milder for instance and throughout the summer. This allows them to keep their natural instinct and remain autonomous, even if this means the loss of a few chicks. They also eat bugs, worms and rodents, which is a useful contribution to our environments.

If you choose to feed crows, you’ll soon make friends, but get ready to hear those early birds crow at your window by dawn, better than roosters can do. For me, this is rather a fun side of the experience, to be greeted daily for a morning chat, but my neighbor finds it annoying. Well, these are just a few brief reflections and anecdotes about my interactions with crows. With a little luck, I might start hearing ”hello” by my window in early morning.

Like with all sentient beings, telepathy is also involved. As an example, as I’m writing these lines about the Crows, the whole murder arrived by my window cawing happily. These remote communications happen too often to be coincidences. Learning from non-human intelligence is a path of wonderment.

Take care of all life. May all beings be free and happy…