The Thirsty Crow –
On a hot day, a thirsty crow flew all over the fields looking for water. He couldn’t find any water but saw a water jug near the village. The crow sat on the rim of the jug and looked inside – he could see some water at the bottom of the jug. He tried to drink some water by pushing his head into the jug but he couldn’t as the neck of the jug was narrow. The crow thought hard …. He saw some pebbles nearby and the smart crow dropped some pebbles into the jug and the water kept rising inside the jug. Soon, he was able to quench his thirst !!
Am sure many of us have read this fable. More recently the following video was doing the rounds about how intelligent crows were by getting them to solve complex problems. Do watch, its fascinating – Are crows the ultimate problem solvers?.
Why am I crowing on about crows ? Well, since we got back from Pune, there is a crow that comes everyday early in the morning and calls Mom to pour some fresh water for him. He then drinks the water and goes off. Today I heard him call and saw there was water in the tray, so didn’t pour any water. He didn’t drink, but kept calling out to Mom who was brushing her teeth. I then got a biscuit and went out to the balcony thinking the crow will fly away. He didn’t. He just sat there and watched me as I placed the biscuit on the railing. He then hopped across and picked up the biscuit delicately without breaking it and took it to the other corner of the railing. Zoom in on the following picture to see the biscuit –
Then he flew away to the opposite house and left the biscuit there. Mom came in and I told her that I gave the crow a biscuit but he didn’t drink any water. She immediately poured fresh water into the tray and no surprise, the crow came back and had a drink –
He then went off to a few other houses. Just when I thought he had forgotten about the biscuit that I gave him, he flew back to the opposite house and picked it up. I think this guy was on his morning food run. Am sure he goes to different houses and picks up some food and comes to our house to drink some water. Smart bird indeed.
Infact a crow would come everyday to Usha Akka’s house in Pune just after she had made rice in the morning. It wouldn’t leave till she gave it some freshly cooked rice. Apparently there is a set of cows that come around to their house and won’t leave till they are fed with “butter”, the crispy buns of Pune. What a lovely world we live in. All animals and birds do communicate, are intelligent and far more in tune with the Earth than supposedly the most intelligent species – the human being. We are totally out of tune with the Earth, turning perfectly arable land into a desert, turning healthy fresh food into dead processed junk and of course filling our oceans with plastic. I can’t see how intelligent that is :(.
Anyway, enjoyed this interaction with the smart crow. Will feed him a piece of roti or bread tomorrow morning and just keep watching him. So much more fun than watching TV. 🙂