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Crows are shockingly smart. Here’s how to make friends with one in four steps.

All it takes is a little food and patience.

via Krari The Crow/YouTube

How to befriend a crow.

When it comes to keeping birds as pets, people usually think about parrots or canaries. Nobody ever considers having a crow. But research has shown that crows are incredibly clever, curious, and self-aware.

They recognize the faces of people they like or don’t like, have the ability to use tools, and can even mimic human speech. Looking to experience the magic of crows yourself? A YouTube user named Kräri The Crow from Germany made a video on how you can befriend the crows in your neighborhood in four easy steps. All it takes is “some food and some patience."

1. Find a pair of crows

Crows tend to live in areas populated by humans, so chances are there are crows in your neighborhood. The best place to start is to find a pair with a fixed territory that you see on a regular basis. That way, you're cultivating a relationship with the same animal day after day and you can "slowly get to know each other."

2. Offer food

Crows will eat just about anything from insects to invertebrates to meat. They also enjoy nuts, worms, and vegetables. If you offer the food in the same place at the same time of day, you'll establish a routine.

3. Be mindful

When interacting with the crow, make sure they aren't anxious or displaying signs that they are prepared to fly away at any moment. Approach the birds with an open, indirect gaze so as to not cause alarm. Sit quietly while you wait for the bird to approach and avoid quick movements.

4. Let the birds come to you

This requires patience. The crow will be shy at first, but they know you better than you think. They will remember your face and your kindness. Give them a chance to observe you and earn your trust.

A the end of the video, Kräri The Crow reminds everyone that while we should make friends with crows, they are supposed to live free in the skies and not be stuck in a cage.

If you succeeded in befriending a feathered genius, tell your new crow friend we say hi!


This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Animals & Wildlife

Turns out menopause might be an evolutionary trait to ensure the survival of a species

Only a few mammals live beyond child bearing years and human females are one of them.

Photo credit: Canva

Menopause might be evolutionary for human survival

Menopause can seem like one of those unfair things that only happen to those born with female reproductive systems. It's just one more thing to add to the list of things that those born of the opposite sex don't have to deal with. Menstrual cycles, hormonal and physical changes through pregnancy, the pain and recovery of childbirth, the pause in your career while caring for an infant, only to hit crescendo with menopause.

All those hormones that helped keep you balanced go careening off a cliff in the endocrine system. The whole process can feel unnecessary for those forced to experience it but there may be a reason menopause exists. Scientists have studied the phenomenon of menopause across different species. Turns out not every female animal goes through the process of shutting down reproductive organs.

For most animals, they reproduce until death, only experiencing menopause if there's something medically wrong or they're kept in captivity. Only three species of mammals live for a significant amount of time post reproductive years, orcas, short-finned pilot whales and humans. This revelation is what spurred "the grandmother hypothesis," which hypothesizes that these female mammal species live longer to ensure survival of the species.

blue and white whales Photo by NOAA on Unsplash

Both species of whales as well as humans assist their daughters in caring for their children. This allows the daughter to have more children, furthering the respective species. Yes, even whales help take care of their grandchildren by providing them food, which frees up their mother to reproduce sooner.

The Grandmother Effect, a 2009 study published in the National Library of Medicine shares, "women who remained vigorous beyond their fertile years may have enhanced their reproductive success by providing care for their grandchildren. This care would have enabled their daughters to resume reproduction sooner, endowing them with greater lifetime fertility. Genes of grandmothers possessing such old-age vigor would be more likely to persist in subsequent generations."

Short-finned Pilot Whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus) | Flickrwww.flickr.com

There were studies done on chimps as well since they're the closest animal to humans and the results were surprising. The majority of chimpanzees reproduce until death but Ngogo chimps seem to go through menopause around the same age as humans, 50. Ngogo chimps live several years after reproducing but unlike humans and whales, they have no interest in helping raise their grandchildren. In fact, the daughters move away from their mothers once they reach maturity.

Though the study spanned from 1995-2016 to collect accurate data through urine analysis of reproductive hormones, scientists point out that menopause may not naturally occur in Ngogo chimps. While the chimps are technically wild, they live in the Kibale National Park in Uganda. They are not hunted by prey, have an unnatural access to quality foods including more meat. Outside of the national park, nearby chimps don't live beyond 50 while the ones within the park live into their 60s.

woman wearing multicolored blanket hugging the baby Photo by Rahul Vaidya on Unsplash

The Ngogo chimps living an unnaturally long life inside the national park may explain why their familial behavior differs from those of humans and the two whale species. One study outside of the Demographic and hormonal evidence for menopause in wild chimpanzees attempts to debunk the grandmother hypothesis which shows nearly all mammals living beyond child bearing years but other scientists dispute their findings as all the animals studied were living in captivity, which greatly impacts lifespan.

In the 2018 study published in Ecology and Evolution, their study of 52 mammals holds firm that only three live beyond menopause, with humans spending 40-70% of their lives post menopause. So, though the grandmother hypothesis is still just that as scientists continue to look for further evidence, it may just be true. Humans have evolved to experience menopause to help further the species and since women live longer than men on average, it doesn't seem like a far leap. No pressure or anything, grandmas. No pressure at all. Just the survival of the human race, no biggie.

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Science

Viral video shows how to find your vestigial organs

Your tailbone was once an anchor for … your tail.

Image from Vox on YouTube.

Evolution of the body is divergent.

The human body is an amazing organism, to say the least.

To watch an athlete dunk a basketball or a ballerina turn a pirouette is to witness an extraordinary machine at work. But the human body is also a biological junkyard of useless ideas it has yet to ditch as we evolve.

There are many organs, tissues, and cells that make up the human body that, though they once had an evolutionary purpose for our survival, are now obsolete. Think about your tonsils or wisdom when they get inflamed to the point of needing surgical removal. These and all other "useless" body parts are known as vestigial organs and every species from humans to birds to felines to fish have them.

The video below goes over just a few of the vestigial organs we can locate on our bodies if we know where to look.

10-15% of people can see a tendon in their wrists that connects to the palmaris longus muscle. Although it serves no purpose for humans, it's essential for primates that live in the treetops and swing from limb to limb.

Humans also have three muscles around their ears that allow some people to make them wiggle. When fully formed in other mammals, the muscles work to rotate the ears in order to pinpoint the source of sounds. Although these body parts are worthless in a practical sense, they serve as a reminder of our vast evolutionary history and reveal our deep connections to other beings on the planet. That knowledge is far from useless.


This article originally appeared eight years ago.

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Science

Eye-opening video shows why 80 percent of Americans live east of this line

You'll never see the U.S. the same again.

via YouTube/RealLifeLore

There's a big change at the 98th meridian.

Have you ever wondered why the eastern half of the United States is densely populated while everything west of Omaha, save for a few metro areas, is no man’s land?

Most people would assume that it’s because people first settled in the east and moved west. Or, they may believe it’s because of the vast desert that takes up most of the southwest. Those are some decent reasons, but it’s a much more complicated issue than you'd imagine.

A 20-minute video by RealLifeLore explains how topography and rainfall have created what appears to be a straight line down the middle of the country on the 98th meridian that dictates population density. Eighty percent of Americans live on the east side of the line and just twenty percent to the west.

RealLifeLore is a YouTube channel that focuses on geography and topography created by Joseph Pisenti.

In the video, we see that several large cities border the American frontier—San Antonio, Austin, Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, Wichita, Omaha, Lincoln, Sioux Falls, and Fargo, as well as Winnipeg up in Canada. To the west of those cities? Not much until you reach western California and the Pacific Northwest.

Why? Watch:

The major reason why the population drastically changes is rainfall. It rains much more on the east side of the line versus the west. The reason for the drastic change in rainfall is that the Rocky Mountains create a colossal wall known as a rain shadow that prevents moisture from passing from the Pacific Ocean. This has created a large swath of dry land that’s not conducive to larger populations.

Though the eastern U.S. is more densely populated, it doesn't mean the west doesn't sometimes feel crowded, especially if you live in Los Angeles County. What side of the line are you on?

This article originally appeared three years ago.

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