Re(2): Flock Carnivores Discovered!

[Lars_Bergquist@public.se (Lars Bergquist)]

On 95-02-06 at 13.01, FEUKAC@PLU.edu wrote:

> Don't Crows and Ravens pack hunt? or maybe some form of pack hunting.
> I've personally seen a flock of crows numbering in the hundreds. I
> didn't  notice any form or structure. 

Answer: no. Crows and ravens are primarily scavengers (and eagles do not
despise carrion either--our local sea eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla, a close
relative of the American bald eagle) are regularly supported in the winter
by rangers who put out sheep and calf carcasses for them, as the species
has been hard hit by pollution. Several eagles usually congregate around
the carcass, but that does not mean that they are a "pack"--what constitutes
a pack and pack hunting is *cooperative behavior* which is here quite
conspicuously absent. Every one of them would clearly prefer if the other
birdies would drop dead--and that goes in spades for the hooded crows and
the occasion raven which also show up. Similarly, the dozens of vultures
that appear as by magic around a carcass on the African savanna have all
been scouting separately and they often home on the smell. Of course a
vulture may see the dive of another vulture and decide to gatecrash, but
that is not cooperation either--cooperation is mutual, in other words, it
takes two (at a minimum) to cooperate.

Regards
Lars Bergquist
lars_bergquist@public.se
(lexicographer--a harmless drudge according to Dr. Johnson, so bear
with me)

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