Animal Uprising Thread

[seemslikeadream]

Crows caught on camera fashioning special hook tools
December 22, 2015

Dr Jolyon Troscianko, from the University of Exeter, and Dr Christian Rutz, from the University of St Andrews, have captured first video recordings documenting how these tropical corvids fashion these particularly complex tools in the wild.
The pair developed tiny video 'spy-cameras' which were attached to the crows, to observe their natural foraging behaviour.
They discovered two instances of hooked stick tool making on the footage they recorded, with one crow spending a minute making the tool, before using it to probe for food in tree crevices and even in leaf litter on the ground.
The findings are reported in the Royal Society's journal Biology Letters on Wednesday, December 23.
Dr Troscianko is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Exeter's Biosciences Department based at the Penryn Campus in Cornwall, who worked on the project while at the University of Birmingham.
He said: "While fieldworkers had previously obtained brief glimpses of hooked stick tool manufacture, the only video footage to date came from baited feeding sites, where tool raw materials and probing tasks had been provided to crows by scientists. We were keen to get close-up video of birds making these tools under completely natural conditions."
"New Caledonian crows are notoriously difficult to observe, not just because of the challenging terrain of their tropical habitats, but also because they can be quite sensitive to disturbance. By documenting their fascinating behaviour with this new camera technology, we obtained valuable insights into the importance of tools in their daily search for food."
To obtain a 'crow's-eye view' of this elusive behaviour, the two researchers developed video cameras that are attached to the crows' tail feathers. The cameras are about the weight of a British 2-pound coin, and a tiny integrated radio beacon let the scientists recover the devices once they had safely detached after a few days. Dr Christian Rutz, Reader in the School of Biology in St Andrews, explains: "These cameras store video footage on a micro-SD card, using technology similar to that found in people's smart phones. This produced video recordings of stunning quality."
The team deployed 19 cameras on crows at their chosen dry forest study site, where in hundreds of hours of fieldwork, despite two brief glimpses with binoculars, they had never managed to film crows manufacturing hooked stick tools.
The team were excited to record two instances of this behaviour on footage recovered from ten birds in their latest study.
Troscianko noted: "The behaviour is easy to miss - the first time I watched the footage, I didn't see anything particularly interesting. Only when I went through it again frame-by-frame, I discovered this fascinating behaviour. Not once, but twice!"
"In one scene, a crow drops its tool, and then recovers it from the ground shortly afterwards, suggesting they value their tools and don't simply discard them after a single use." According to Rutz, this observation agrees with recent aviary experiments conducted by his group: "Crows really hate losing their tools, and will use all sorts of tricks to keep them safe. We even observed them storing tools temporarily in tree holes, the same way a human would put a treasured pen into a pen holder."
New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) are found on the South Pacific island of New Caledonia.
They can use their bills to whittle twigs and leaves into bug-grabbing implements; some believe their tool-use is so advanced that it rivals that of some primates.

[Cordelia]

^^^
I was going to say "So much for opposable thumb superiority" but.........

"Crows have opposable talons........"

http://science.howstuffworks.com/scienc ... -birds.htm

[Iamwhomiam]

Crows are so cool!

I hope we'll someday evolve enough to communicate with our fellow space travelers.

At least enough to apologize properly.

[82_28]

Panic has set in. The city is lost. For more than 24 hours, the sky has fallen on Washington, D.C., once considered the most powerful city in the world. Still it falls, in the form of tiny jagged ice crystals, which rain down in sheets on the capital of the free world. District delenda est.

The city is lost. Since yesterday afternoon, nature has reasserted its hold over the world of man. In a neighborhood called Cleveland Park—for that is something that human civilization once did; we claimed lands and gave them titles, we called these lands home, we called these lands ours—the fauna have returned. You and I, friend? We were only ever renters, temporary occupants, living on borrowed time.

These deer, prancing across streets on which engines once motored, where business was conducted, where civilization was performed, these frolicking fairies are the sign, the signal: The city is lost.

http://www.citylab.com/weather/2016/01/ ... urce=atlfb

[dqueue]

From KTLA in Louisiana, we learn of a close encounter with an initially unidentified flying owl... A cop crashed his cruiser after an owl flew into his open window...

http://ktla.com/2015/12/25/louisiana-police-officer-crashes-after-owl-flies-into-patrol-car/

[seemslikeadream]

Trained eagle destroys drone in Dutch police video

By Peter Holley February 1 at 5:46 PM
Watch Dutch police train huge raptors to take out drones

The Dutch National Police released a video that shows huge birds of prey flying through the air and grabbing small, consumer drones out of the sky. (Dutch National Police)
For hundreds of years in the skies over Asia, people have used eagles to hunt down prey with deadly results.

That tradition has been in decline for decades, but now the bird's keen eyesight, powerful talons and lethal hunting instincts are being used to take out a new kind of 21st-century vermin: drones.

The animal vs. machine moment is brought to you by Guard From Above, which describes itself as "the world’s first company specialized in training birds of prey to intercept hostile drones."

[The ancient and vanishing art of hunting with eagles]

Its latest customers are Dutch police, who are looking for ways to disable illegally operating drones. A police spokesperson told Dutch News.nl that the effort remains in a testing phase, but called the use of birds to combat drones a "very real possibility."

The rise of drone technology has been matched in speed by the rise of anti-drone technology, with companies creating radio jammers and "net-wielding interceptor" drones to disable quadcopters, according to the Verge.

“For years, the government has been looking for ways to counter the undesirable use of drones," GFA's founder and CEO, Sjoerd Hoogendoorn, said in a statement released to the media. “Sometimes a low-tech solution for a high-tech problem is more obvious than it seems. This is the case with our specially trained birds of prey. By using these birds’ animal instincts, we can offer an effective solution to a new threat.”

A video released on Sunday by police shows an eagle swooping in at high speed to pluck a DJI Phantom out of the air using its talons. The drone is immediately disabled as the bird carries it off.

"The bird sees the drone as prey and takes it to a safe place, a place where there are no other birds or people," project spokesman Marc Wiebes told Dutch News.nl. ‘That is what we are making use of in this project."

[Winged beast descends from heavens to trash Missouri man’s bedroom]

Eagles' talons, as the New York Daily News points out, are known for their bone-crushing grip, but whether they could be damaged by carbon-fiber propellers is unknown.

According to a study cited by Wired in 2009, raptors' talons are finely-tuned hunting instruments:

"...accipitrids, which include hawks and eagles, have two giant talons on their first and second toes," the article notes. "These give them a secure grip on struggling game that they like to eat alive, “so long as it does not protest too vigorously. In this prolonged and bloody scenario, prey eventually succumb to massive blood loss or organ failure, incurred during dismemberment.”

A handler in the video, the Daily News notes, claims the birds are adequately protected by scales on their feet and legs, but researchers hope to equip the animals with another layer of defense.

Dutch News.nl reported that the decision about whether to use the eagles is still several months away.

[Nordic]

https://instagram.com/p/BCHy3wcMPJc/

[MacCruiskeen]

Marx: "The exact moment when the working class achieves self-awareness":

https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/Cb0hvBYW0AAYn0g.mp4

[Iamwhomiam]

Excellent! Thanks Mac.

[Cordelia]

Things are getting wild in Northern Virginia: Raccoon and fox attacks reported

"A man fought off a raccoon that bit him and eventually killed it by putting his foot on its throat in Fairfax County. And two women were bitten by foxes in separate incidents in the county.

The incident with the raccoon happened Thursday about 11 a.m. in the Clifton area.

Police said the man was awakened by a raccoon in his home. It’s not immediately clear how the animal got inside."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/th ... story.html

Edited to add that I had a 'pet' raccoon as a child; they're very intelligent and dexterous creatures.

[Cordelia]

Training a Raven to Paint
Using non-toxic, water-based paint, American Trail's female raven Iris creates one-of-a-kind works of art! Painting is one among many activities that fall under Animal Enrichment—a program that provides physically and mentally stimulating activities and environments for the Zoo's residents. Biologist Rebecca Sturniolo reveals how she trained Iris to express herself through paint in the latest Keeper Q & A.


http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/news/raven-qa.cfm

(While trainer is aiming for rudimentary brush strokes from Iris, the raven is planning on plastering zoo walls with graffiti and obscenities after closing time. )

[Iamwhomiam]

Octopus slips out of aquarium tank, crawls across floor, escapes down pipe to ocean

By Karin Brulliard April 13, 2016

(Sorry! I do not know how to embed this video.)

Inky the octopus has won international fame after his stealthy escape from the National Aquarium of New Zealand. Here's how Inky spent his time at the aquarium before breaking free. (Facebook/National Aquarium of New Zealand)

Inky the octopus didn’t even try to cover his tracks.

By the time the staff at New Zealand’s National Aquarium noticed that he was missing, telltale suction cup prints were the main clue to an easily solved mystery.

Inky had said see ya to his tank-mate, slipped through a gap left by maintenance workers at the top of his enclosure and, as evidenced by the tracks, made his way across the floor to a six-inch-wide drain. He squeezed his football-sized body in — octopuses are very malleable, aquarium manager Rob Yarrall told the New Zealand website Stuff — and made a break for the Pacific.

[‘Watch out – he’s heavily armed’ and other great comebacks about Inky the octopus]

“He managed to make his way to one of the drain holes that go back to the ocean. And off he went,” Yarrall told Radio New Zealand. “And he didn’t even leave us a message.”

The cephalopod version of “Shawshank Redemption” took place three months ago, but it only became public Tuesday. Inky, who already had some local renown in the coastal city of Napier, quickly became a global celebrity cheered on by strangers.

Inky had resided at the aquarium since 2014, when he was taken in after being caught in a crayfish pot, his body scarred and his arms injured. The octopus’s name was chosen from nominations submitted to a contest run by the Napier City Council.

Kerry Hewitt, the aquarium’s curator of exhibits, said at the time that Inky was “getting used to being at the aquarium” but added that staff would “have to keep Inky amused or he will get bored.”

Guess that happened.

(42 second video at link)
This video shows a common octopus being returned to its natural environment in the Indian River Lagoon in Fort Pierce, Fla. (Smithsonian Marine Ecosystems Exhibit)

This isn’t the first time a captive octopus decided to take matters into its own hands — er, tentacles. In 2009, after a two-spotted octopus at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium in California took apart a water recycling valve, directed a tube to shoot water out of the tank for 10 hours and caused a massive flood, Scientific American asked octopus expert Jennifer Mather about the animals’ intelligence and previous such hijinks at aquariums.

“They are very strong, and it is practically impossible to keep an octopus in a tank unless you are very lucky. … Octopuses simply take things apart,” Mather said. “I recall reading about someone who had built a robot submarine to putter around in a large aquarium tank. The octopus got a hold of it and took it apart piece by piece. There’s a famous story from the Brighton Aquarium in England 100 years ago that an octopus there got out of its tank at night when no one was watching, went to the tank next door and ate one of the lumpfish and went back to his own tank and was sitting there the next morning.”

Yarrall said the aquarium has no plans to replace Inky, but it does intend to better secure the tank where now just one octopus remains.

“They are always exploring and they are great escape artists,” Yarrall said, according to Hawke’s Bay Today. “We’ll be watching the other one.”


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/04/13/octopus-slips-out-of-aquarium-tank-crawls-across-floor-escapes-down-pipe-to-ocean/

[SonicG]

Marx: "The exact moment when the working class achieves self-awareness":

https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video/Cb0hvBYW0AAYn0g.mp4

"Orangutans of the world - Relax!!" - Not-Marx

[82_28]

Weasel Apparently Shuts Down World's Most Powerful Particle Collider

A small mammal has sabotaged the world's most powerful scientific instrument.

The Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile superconducting machine designed to smash protons together at close to the speed of light, went offline overnight. Engineers investigating the mishap found the charred remains of a furry creature near a gnawed-through power cable.
A small mammal, possibly a weasel, gnawed-through a power cable at the Large Hadron Collider.
i

A small mammal, possibly a weasel, gnawed-through a power cable at the Large Hadron Collider.
Ashley Buttle/Flickr

"We had electrical problems, and we are pretty sure this was caused by a small animal," says Arnaud Marsollier, head of press for CERN, the organization that runs the $7 billion particle collider in Switzerland. Although they had not conducted a thorough analysis of the remains, Marsollier says they believe the creature was "a weasel, probably." (Update: An official briefing document from CERN indicates the creature may have been a marten.)

The shutdown comes as the LHC was preparing to collect new data on the Higgs Boson, a fundamental particle it discovered in 2012. The Higgs is believed to endow other particles with mass, and it is considered to be a cornerstone of the modern theory of particle physics.

Researchers have seen some hints in recent data that other, yet-undiscovered particles might also be generated inside the LHC. If those other particles exist, they could revolutionize researcher's understanding of everything from the laws of gravity, to quantum mechanics.

Unfortunately, Marsollier says, scientists will have to wait while workers bring the machine back online. Repairs will take a few days, but getting the machine fully ready to smash might take another week or two. "It may be mid-May," he says.

These sorts of mishaps are not unheard of, says Marsollier. The LHC is located outside of Geneva. "We are in the countryside, and of course we have wild animals everywhere." There have been previous incidents, including one in 2009, when a bird is believed to have dropped a baguette onto critical electrical systems.

Nor are the problems exclusive to the LHC: In 2006, raccoons conducted a "coordinated" attack on a particle accelerator in Illinois.

It is unclear whether the animals are trying to stop humanity from unlocking the secrets of the universe.

Of course, small mammals cause problems in all sorts of organizations. Yesterday, a group of children took National Public Radio off the air for over a minute before engineers could restore the broadcast.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/ ... e-collider

[82_28]