Re: cooperative hunting on the wing

[FEUKAC@PLU.edu]

On Wed, 15 Feb 1995, paul sparks wrote:

> There has been plenty of discussion of these ideas of pack hunting of prey.
> A lot of that has to do with birds (naturally).  Here are a couple of
> observations from someone in the sticks, aka country.
> 
> Crows will collectively pester a hawk (redtail in my area), but they don't
> do it at the same time.  Each crow gets a shot until he/she gets tired and
> then another jumps in while the others watch.  This is sort of like wolf
> packs do in the exhaustion part of their attack. This way the crows stay out
> of each other's way, so I'd say its cooperative  but not coordinated as with
> simultaneous attacks.

 I've personally seen three crows take on a bald eagle and they also take 
turns. They are also more manueverable than the eagle. I've also seen 
this attack method with crows attacking a great blue heron. What do other 
people think?

 Aaron Feuk
Preparator,Dept. of Earth Sciences 
Pacific Lutheran University
Tacoma,Wash 98447

> paul w. sparks  Psparks@cerfnet.com
> "over the heather the wet wind blows
> I've lice in my tunic and a cold in my nose."
> anon
> 
>