What Ho! Ah! To live with a What Ho on my lips and a Gentleman's Gentleman… {sigh}… Such is life…

The Social Crows

The Trapped Crow

Today I noticed a very large number of crows squaking in a tree in the building opposite our 3rd floor flat in Juhu. For some time I tuned out the noise and kept up a conversation with Padmaja over our morning tea.

After a few minutes the thought slowly sunk in that there must be something going on. First I thought of a dead animal that they were fighting over. But there was no smell and our locality is normally free of garbage on the roads.

Then I looked up and saw a crow hanging by a wing from a branch in the tree across the road. It wasn't dead. I could see it moving it's head to peer at it's fellow crows on the tree. But it was caught fast by it's right wing and wasn't able to free itself.

Then it struct me that the crow in trouble must have called to its fellows and they responded! I saw a couple trying to help. They tried to get close and jumped up and down on the branch. So far they haven't been able pull the poor bird free.

Then I noticed other birds in the same tree and on neighbouring ones! They too were chattering and animated.

What did I just wittness? Sentient creatures. Social behaviour among not just one species of birds but across species.

We are not the only species on this world that can think. We are the most powerful and in our power we have become so arrogant that we don't even think about our fellow sentient creatures who share this world with us. Our behaviour towards this planet, our home, might yet doom all of us. The crows included.

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