THE RAVEN

URBAN ROULETTE
The raven

Ayutayya, Thailand: We left the Ayutayya ruins to arrive at a garage where a thai food buffet was waiting for us. The food in Southeast Asia is delicious; a mixture of crunchy vegetables with hot and sour flavours turns them in to a whole culinary experience.
The dishes are a majestic mix of a variety of live colurs that contrast with the withe rice. This afternoon the pleasure of food has being mixed with the great company of a new caged friend.
With the company of a Spanish guy I ventured to the backyard, where we found a huge amount of cages that were the home to the most funny and unique birds. As I was walking looking at these funny birds I began to feel like I was in a kind of genetic lab experimentation. In one of the cages I could see what it looked like a parrot with an eagle face (Lineated Barbet). It was desperately flying from one side to another, nervous at see us. In great contrast a huge bird with beautiful colours in the next cage stared at us with his magnificent crest and what seemed to be a banana over its mouth and head (Great Hornbill). We kept walking, finding all kind of strange and amazing birds. Suddenly we heard someone calling us: “Come on, come on”, “oh my gosh!” my fiend and I looked at each other and followed the distressed voice calling us.
We walked through a narrow corridor between white walls. We could see that rain was coming and the sun had been covered by the clouds, giving the place a dark and lurid sight.
Finally we could hear the voice coming out of a cage. A huge dark crow was talking to us, instantly I remembered that Edgar’s Allan Poe, poem, “…Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow…” who would believe that it was possible there could be a raven that could talk, and with such a scary human voice! I could even tell the raven had a British accent!
I have always had a special respect for these birds, as well as black cats, the ones are threatened by the many myths that exist about them. This travel has woken up my interest in crows.
Crows are more intelligent than what we imagine. Oren Hasson, a Israeli zoologist, once sat on a park bench and observed that the crows would go in to the lake with a piece of bread and little by little drop pieces into the water until a fish came up to eat it. The crows would use this method to successfully catch fish. These birds sacrificed their food and time for better prey. A crow can live between 10 to 15 years but there are records of crows that have lived up to 40 years.
Crows have the capacity to solve problems with creativity, imagination and intelligence, really impressive for birds, they have even been considered as intelligent as apes.
Crows know how to use other animals to achieve their goals. Crows can call wolves to an animal’s carcass so they can open it, and make it easier for the bird to eat it later. If it is about food, these birds always find a way. In the USA crows drop nuts over the streets so cars can break the shells. As soon as the lights are red and people crossing the streets, the crows come down to pick up their food.
Not long ago I heard of a scientific study that found bees can recognize human faces. This kind of information makes me wonder how much we have underestimated animals. I believe it’s something similar to what happened in Mexico and Africa when the conquerors came to our lands. At the beginning they said that we were not humans; as if they recognized we had a soul they had to deal with our rights and dignity. I wonder for how much longer we will believe that animals do not think or feel as much as we do.