Every year since 2010, biologist John Marzluff or his students have pulled on a caveman mask and walked Seattle's University of Washington (UW) campus. And every year, they have been scolded, mobbed and dive-bombed by campus crows. "I keep expecting none will respond, but they always do," he says.The birds got to know the caveman as foe a decade ago when Marzluff s students donned the mask before catching and tagging seven crows for a study on the birds' ability to recall human faces. Not only have the crows never forgotten that insult, they've apparently told their offspring to beware: Most of today's irate birds weren't even born at the time of the first study. "This ongoing recognition is remarkable," Marzluff says. "It suggests cultural learning—passed between generations—not just learning based on personal experience."
展开▼
