Survival Instincts?

[Suicide Junkie]

Man, the things that pass for survival instincts these days...

I'm walking down the road, and whoosh, a bird takes off.
Alright, so I surprised it...

Then from behind, whoosh.
Ok, so now I know it has a nest nearby, and in a relatively stupid place. If I were a predator, this would be bad news.
I continue along, giving the vined fence some more room.

Whoosh.
Ok, now this is silly. Perhaps if I were sniffing around for the eggs, but I'm minding my own business and have got to be past the nest by now so give it a freaking rest!

Whoosh.
Now, I've had enough. I stop and give it the evil eye... one more pass at me and you're getting a smack upside whatever I can hit.

Stupid bird... nesting in a fence with multiple dogs on one side and a major road on the other, then pissing off innocent people with useless attacks.

[AMF]

Was it a magpie? Aren't they known for that sort of behaviour?

Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:
Man, the things that pass for survival instincts these days...

I'm walking down the road, and whoosh, a bird takes off.
Alright, so I surprised it...

Then from behind, whoosh.
Ok, so now I know it has a nest nearby, and in a relatively stupid place. If I were a predator, this would be bad news.
I continue along, giving the vined fence some more room.

Whoosh.
Ok, now this is silly. Perhaps if I were sniffing around for the eggs, but I'm minding my own business and have got to be past the nest by now so give it a freaking rest!

Whoosh.
Now, I've had enough. I stop and give it the evil eye... one more pass at me and you're getting a smack upside whatever I can hit.

Stupid bird... nesting in a fence with multiple dogs on one side and a major road on the other, then pissing off innocent people with useless attacks.

[Arkcon]

Do you wear glasses SJ? If you do, remember, other animals don't.

To a species like us, with technology and a society to care for us in the event of a major accident, the bird's attack is trivial.

But wild animals are scared. Even the remote chance of minor injury means they're defenseless for a while. And being blind in one eye is a death sentence.

Are you still going to walk there? If you just decide you don't want to be hassled, the bird's "plan" is successful. It's not "formulating a plan" for a perfect success, just doing the best it can.

See, in the old days, when you watched something like Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom or some such nature program, you always got this voice over how Nature provided animals with the Instinct to survive, and how it was always in perfect balance with their Environment.

Now we're getting a more balanced notion. This stuff is random. Like one time, lioness finds a den to give birth, as instinct dictates, it must be hidden from the rest of the pride until the cubs a strong enough for the rough and tumble of pride life. Unfortunately, she picked a spot over a spitting cobra's den. Oops. Gave birth, went to get a drink, came back, got blinded. She wandered for a couple days, injured, never found her cubs. Cubs have no instinct to look for her and starved. Whole thing was filmed, and people were up in arms about the cruel humans who didn't rescue the cubs.

[ May 26, 2004, 15:24: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

[Suicide Junkie]

I know how its supposed to work, but really, a bit more discretion would be better.

Trying to scare off an otherwise clueless creature does not help things, and merely reveals the presence of the eggs to everything in the area.

And the constant cars going by and dogs barking in the yards are pretty freaking obvious... meanwhile there is a nice quiet forest/park less than 100m away.

[Arkcon]

That's the whole point. The constant annoyance makes it hopeless for a predator to hunt, sleep or raise it's own offspring there. Mobing a predator is common, and everyone gets into the act.

Wanna have some fun? Practice hooting like an owl until you've got it perfect. You'll know you've got it down when when they start hooting back at night. Then try hooting in the daytime, it's a great way to attact all wildlife. Crows, Jay, even squirrels will come out of the woodwork looking for the daytime active owl. They didn't have a committee meeting on the attack plan, and they're not sporting for a rumble. They just want the interloper gone, and gone for good.

[Lord_Shleepy]

I was reminded of this discussion today as two birds dove suicidally into the path of my car on the way home from work. Poor shtupid horny creatures.

Add that to the possum that sat, growling stubbornly underneath my car...despite engine noise, honking, and backing up over it's tail and you get buckets of animal self elimination. I had to scoop that one off the driveway with a shovel - it was gnawing at the gardening tool the entire time...still unconvinced that it was better off wandering happily in the wilds than sitting in my driveway waiting to be run over or dog-eaten...or run over and dog eaten.

I swear that these critters are nearly as dumb as people sometimes!