One Crow

This morning there was a crow outside and I watched him drop a triangle red something into a rain water puddle. Perhaps pizza, perhaps critter guts. Anyway, he picked it up and seemed to break off a piece to eat, as the rest fell back in the water. Then he picked the piece back up and flew off. This was problem solving behavior if you assume he knew the water would soften his meal.

Animal versus human traits are a big deal in science news.  Do chimps have compassion, says the famous scientist about his experiments on caged animals?  The story is always the same--- such and such beast shows human behavior.

In fact, the scientists have the setup backwards.  Their research could be used to show what is non-human and more animalistic about the researcher, about ourselves. Obviously our body unites us with the animal world, and surely our brain does too. So what is specific about the human in this scenario; a clue is if animals do it also, some behavior of ours is may have evolved from our neighbors on this planet. I trust my point is clear. I think the language is skewed to avoid the fact that animals and people are even related at all. But if chimpanzees hug someone who has been kind to them, surely that suggests a range of human emotional behavior is shared by, probably originated in, these beasts. So the question is, exactly what about compassion is distinct with homo sapiens.

But to recognize this, really rather obvious fact, runs into what Steven Pinker calls, "the ban on knowing who you are."

Now that I think about it, that crow was eating pizza he rescued from some trash container.