DO RAVENS HAVE SOMETHING TO CROW ABOUT?

Over time, Science has acquired great knowledge, which in turn, has produced achievements in medicine, space exploration, consumer goods and, of course communication-the internet of all things life. Indeed, it would be difficult to imagine a frontier that has not been studied and conquered by scientists in pursuit of Science.

But wait, there's more. A recent article reports that a new frontier has been challenged.* Scientists have discovered that ravens--you know, the bird that quoth "Nevermore"--acknowledge and share negative emotions between fellow ravens, all without social media.

This scientific advancement was reached by testing pairs of ravens. One was offered unappealing raw carrots and more tasty dog food. When the dog food was taken away, the bird left with only carrots became cranky and unhappy. Meanwhile, the other raven was watching all this, sort of like streaming live TV. Later, a cognitive bias test was performed. The observer bird appeared to be influenced by its partner's disappointment with the raw carrots. Of course, I probably would be disappointed with carrots, as well, but I am not sure happiness comes with dog food either unless one is a dog. As expected, the article suggests more research is needed on the emotions of non-human animals.

Recently, the emotions of blackbirds made the national media.** You know, "Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie, when the pie was opened, the birds began to sing>". Well, the blackbirds at issue were not singing. They are attacking humans across the country with a singular emotion of anger.

I am sure that more research on the emotions of ravens and blackbirds will advance human society in some fashion, but I cannot quite put my finger on the "how." Meanwhile, I can offer my own experience with the emotions of the bee. Bees also appear to have only one emotion--anger. When angry, they sting. Otherwise, they work all the time, thus, the busy bee. I never have seen a happy bee, or even a friendly one.

So, why do some birds and bees have anger as their primary or even only emotion? Blame it on climate change, but it's probably politics.

_____________________________________________

*Wilke, "Bad Moods Spread Among Ravens",
Science News, June 22, 2019, p.17

**Smith, "Hitchcock Was Right About Angry
Birds", Wall Street Journal, July 16, 2019,
p.1


© 2019 Daniel J. Kucera

WHERE HAVE ALL THE BUGS GONE!

Pop...splat...another bug splashes across the windshield as we drive along a country road. Soon, the glass resembles a bad case of measles. That is the way it always has been, forcing one to squint between the debris.

For example, years ago, I was driving in Minnesota one early evening in our 1954 Ford Ranch Wagon. We did not have a ranch and the car did not have a radio, air conditioning and, most importantly, a windshield washer. Suddenly, there came a cloud of grasshoppers--like a plague of locusts in olden Egypt. The windshield wipers only smeared body parts into a thick mesentery, causing us to pull over every few miles and attempt to clean the mess.

Once in South Dakota, we stopped at an anonymous hamburger joint for a luncheon hamburger, of course. Declining to dine inside due to prevalent flies, we decided to dine in the car. There we enjoyed watching hordes of huge flies themselves dining on all the bugs splatted on the windshield. The view was not appetizing, matching the nature of the sandwich, so we offered them to the flies, as well.

Fast forward to last weekend. We were driving through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois for two days. Not a single bug tarnished our windshield during that trip. When we returned home, the windshield was perfectly clear-- or, I should say--as clear as it was when we began the trip. So, where have all the bugs gone?

One explanation might be that modern cars have more of a slant in the windshield and are more aerodynamic--bugs are blown away before they can splat. Perhaps another explanation could be that we were driving on roads that ran along farm fields of corn and soybeans. Could it be that pesticides applied in those fields affected the bug population?

Of course, there does not appear to be a bug shortage generally. This Summer, for example, the Japanese beetle population was thriving on our bushes. All that they seem to do is eat the leaves and have sex, generally it seems doing both at the same time.

And, in the Fall, we share our house with stink bugs and Asian fake ladybugs (orange, not red) which somehow find ways to enter. Thankfully, some spiders seem to come along, too.

I find the clear windshield phenomenon to be perplexing. I suppose I should be happy there are no bug splats. Nevertheless, it bugs me. Why are there no bugs hitting the windshield? Like everything else that we cannot explain--it must be climate change.


© Daniel J. Kucera 2018