Hippo's Wild World of Animals - Random Animal Facts

Desert Dweller I think you're right: I don't remember requesting them, buuuut then again I don't remember NOT requesting them, so I just kept quiet. At any rate, I think they are frightening and huge and amazing.



I'm sorry, but THAT is a goddamned muppet.

Sorry I've missed the past few posts. Been crazy busy, and then I got sick (possibly related).

So I'll start off with some bits about hyraxes:

They aren't the smartest critters. Nor the fastest. They're not really cuddly, or agile. They don't have claws, or sabre-teeth, or any cool hidden weapons. They are amongst the most potato-shaped of all mammals, however.



With their dumpy bodies, clog-like toes and put upon expressions, they remind me of old Pyrogy-ladies. I imagine if they could speak, pretty much all they'd do is "tsk" and grumble about all these new-fangled fancy animals running about and being cool.

They really are kind of a living representative of some of the earliest mammal herbivores. Before the Red Queen started pushing evolutionary wars between sleek predators and nimble running herbivores, most critters kind of looked like clunky, slow dumplings. They're kind of proof that evolution doesn't strive for perfection of form. It only settles for "meh, good enough".

Like most mammals, they have larger extinct relatives. Back in the Eocene (about 33-30 mya) there was Megalohyrax, found in Africa and Asia Minor. Despite the grandiose name, Megalohyrax was about the size of a tapir. As this reconstruction shows, they were hardly creatures to inspire awe and wonder:

This week, Hippo is away, so I've agreed to give a shot at this week's critter.

By request of Desert Dweller I present the crow!



There are about 40 species of crow worldwide (not to mention the related Corvids like ravens, magpies and jackdaws). The most familiar to most would be the American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) of North America and the carrion crow or rook (Corvus corone) of Europe.



They are black birds, and fairly large for a perching bird. They're about a foot long, with 3' wingspan. Among the passerines only the closely related ravens are larger.





Crows are omnivorous, mostly feeding on insects, carrion, scraps of human garbage, seeds, eggs, nestlings, and even actively hunting frogs and mice.





They've even been known to feed their friends.



Crows are noted for their intelligence. They are one of the few birds known to make and use tools to obtain food.






The crow's intelligence makes them particularly vulnerable to West Nile virus. While many bird species can get this form of viral encephalitis, when crows get it the swelling of their brain tissue is a much bigger problem, and they are more likely to die from the disease. This was useful as a sentinel warning when West Nile reached a new area, as the highly susceptible crows would start dropping like flies. Public Health and Mosquito Surveillance programs across North America used it as a tool to determine the spread of the virus after it was introduced in the early 2000s.



Unfortunately many in the public, and most media outlets misunderstood the significance of the crows in West Nile programs. We still get calls to eliminate flocks of crows because they "might be carrying West Nile", or wondering why we're not still testing dead crows. The crows were the canary in the coal mine. Killing them to control West Nile would be like smashing the canary and then declaring the mine safe. More effective (although not very) would be to kill all the robins, but no one ever asks us to do that.




The crow's intelligence is also evident in their capacity for play. There are few mammals that can match the mischievous cleverness of the playful crow.





Baby crows defy the standard rule for birds. Usually, if a bird is beautiful and majestic as an adult, the chicks are horrific, gawky monstrosities (qv: owlet, baby parrot). If the chick is cute, usually it's the adult that's ugly or dumpy (eg. chickens, geese).

Baby crows, however are as cute as the adults are cool.



This was a good critter for me to take over the main entry, as I know almost nothing about crows paleontologically. The Corvid group is thought to be Australasian in origin, with their nearest relatives the birds of paradise and Australian mud nesters. The crows themselves split off in Asia during the Miocene (5-7 mya), and spread out from there.

Great job haysoos. That gif of the crow using metal pieces, to raise the water, to get the food was great.

q

I don't think I requested the crow. Is Hippo's request chart off? I definitely did request the Shoebill, but wasn't cited for that. I don't think I requested the crow. Or, did I actually request this and forget about it?

Whatever, crows are awesome. It is amazing how smart they are. I told my mom some of this information about crows once. How they drop shelled food into the street, watch the cars run it over, then wait for the green light to go get it after the shell's been broken. That is just amazing. My mother was very impressed!

My posts on Page 9, Dec 9th, 2015 and Page 25, August 23rd say otherwise!

I'm disillusioned.

Fun second-hand crow story:
Every year at Wifemate's natural science illustrators conference they have plenary speakers from the world of biology and naturalism. (This is where I learned the about the horror of moose ticks.) One year they hosted an academic studying crows and their intelligence. Cut to the chase: one study involved putting baby crows into a bag and shaking it so they were pretty pissed off. Turns out, when those baby crows (who were freed) grew up they taught their crow children about the guy who put daddy in a bag. Now the scientist wore a bald cap and mask the whole time he did it. A different guy, who happened to be bald, kinda-sorta resembled the mask face, and whose house was near the place where this study had been done, had a weird recurring interaction with crows. Word got back to the academic that this guy on many occasions found himself squawked at and even dive-bombed by crows near his home.

Yeah, it was entirely you, Desert Dweller requested the shoebill but for some reason I got you two mixed up and intended to get it right last week too. Sorry.

I'm back, thanks to haysoos for filling in. This week's animal is the hyena as requested, for real this time, by songstarliner and @patrickbatman .

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I expect that post on shoebills and hyraxes at some point, haysoos.

How long have those been there?

'Hyaenidae have had a rough time of things with looking like a canine but having more to do with felines . . .'

You're aware of this tragic reality and yet still call them 'spotted kooks!' You did post some particularly sweet photos that make seem okay.

'Their lifespans are pretty short being fierce fighters and around 8 years in the wild is common though this jumps up to 25 years in captivity.'

The reasons are obvious, but that's still a remarkable extension.