When I think of a crow the last thing that comes to mind is " beautiful" or "intelligent" but according to naturalist Lyanda Lyn Haupt some people, including her, seem to think of your everyday crow as just that. Crows are more than your everyday scavenger according to Lyanda, crows are actually some-what smart. Haupt explains in her article that crows can actually recognize peoples faces. To back up her statement she found a researcher from the University of Washington who conducted an experiment in which he tested crows reactions to people dressed in cavemen mask's. The crows would caw and dive at the volunteers dressed in the masks but when the same volunteer's dressd in outfits where there faces were completley coverd, the crows did absolutley nothing to them. Lyana even observed a crow "funeral" where a body of crows would crowd around a deceased crow and stand there in complete silence. Afraid that the science comminuty would look down upon Haupts observation, she insists that her observation is redible and that crows really are a special smart bird. Haupt makes a statement that she believes crows will outlast most "fragile" species because they have been around for so many years just like us humans. It just might be true that we humans enable other species like crows to be on this planet for as long as they have been here. If you think about it crows use things that humans have built throughtout our existance on this planet. They live off our buidings, pick in our garbage, and poop on our cars. Without crows, pigeons would take over!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/books/review/Schillinger-t.html?_r=1&ref=science
