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Title: Crow Believed to Be Oldest in World Dies
Source:
Associated Press
URL Source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/print?id=2165410
Published: Jul 7, 2006
Author: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Post Date: 2006-07-07 23:56:54 by Morgana le Fay
Keywords: None
Views: 186
Comments: 19
Crow That May Have Been the World's Oldest Dies at Age 59 BEARSVILLE, N.Y. - There's no way to prove Tata was the world's oldest crow when he died Sunday at age 59. But an expert on crows says it's possible. Tata's tale began in 1947 when a thunderstorm blew the fledgling out of his nest in a Long Island cemetery, a mishap that likely led to his long life. Injured and unable to fly, the bird was scooped up by a cemetery caretaker and brought to a local family with a reputation for taking care of animals, Tata's most recent owner, Kristine Flones, told the Daily Freeman of Kingston. "He was never able to fly, so he became their family pet," said Flones, a wildlife rehabilitator in the Woodstock, N.Y., hamlet of Bearsville, 95 miles north of New York City. The Manetta family took care of Tata for more than half a century but gave the bird to Flones in 2001 because of their own health problems. Blinded by cataracts and 54 years old when she got him, Tata was still a wonderful pet, Flones said. "When you came around him, his energy was very beautiful," she told the newspaper. "It was as if he were exuding or giving off a loving energy." "It's an incredibly old bird," said Kevin McGowan, an ornithologist at Cornell University who has studied crows for more than 20 years. "They don't live that old in the wild." McGowan said the oldest living crow he has documented in the wild is a bird he banded as a fledgling and has tracked for 15 years. There is an unsubstantiated claim of a 29- or 30-year-old crow in the wild, but he knows of no older crows, tame or otherwise. While claims of animal longevity are tough to verify, McGowan said, "This one sounded pretty reasonable to me." In an environment without predators, communicable disease or the likelihood of a fatal accident, a crow could grow as old as Tata, he said. Flones said Tata was still active and alert in his later years, to the point each spring that he called out from inside the house to crows outside, often loudly and beginning at 5 a.m. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures
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#1. To: Morgana le Fay (#0)
I like crows. But I am not a farmer. They do seem remarkably alert, more so than many humans. Don't parrots live to be a hundred years or so? Ravens are supersized crows? To be a raven for an afternoon in the Grand Canyon....
i think parrots live a very long time. at least the large ones do. there is some book where a talking parrot outlives a pirate by 20 years and gives clues to where the pirate had buried the loot. it might be treasure island but i can't remember.
Crows are freakishly intelligent, well into the range of sentience in my mind. If you google "tool using crow" there's a video clip at a site that shows a crow actually fashioning a tool (not just using what's at hand) out of a paper clip to retrieve a little bucket of food from down a tube. While I may have mentioned it before, my weirdest crow story involved meeting one walking along railroad tracks while on a job. I walked up to it, and made a comment to the effect of "You know, it's a lot easier to get where your going if you just use those wings and fly". It looked up at me and cawed, then, when I held my hand down it hopped up on it. I walked back to the truck where I set it on the tailgate while me and a coworker ate lunch. It dined with us, eating pieces of slices of lunchmeat and dranking water from a sample liner end cap. I took it home, and left it on my balcony the next day with some moistened cat food and water. It was gone when I came home, probably with a monster crow version of the "You aren't going to F***ing believe this" story for it's buddies... I've had that type of experience with a few other critters too, like they know instinctively that I'll not strike out at them or kill them just for the sake of it like a lot of our lame brethren are prone to...
"To wield onself -- to use oneself as a tool in one's own hand -- and so to make or break that which no one else can build or ruin -- THAT is the greatest pleasure known to man! To one who has felt the chisel in his hand and set free the angel prisoned in the marble block, or to one who has felt sword in hand and set homeless the soul that a moment before lived in the body of his mortal enemy -- to those both come alike the taste of that rare food spread only for demons or for gods." -- Gordon R. Dickson, "Soldier Ask Not"
Cool story, but crows give me the creeps, thanks to Hitchcock.
Brandon Lee was my kind of 'Crow'.
Maybe I should watch that one of these weekends.
My mother raised a mourning dove, starting with an eye-dropper for feeding, and it stayed in our home for almost fifteen years.
That's amazing, and if it weren't you telling it I would have difficulity believing it.
Finches - 15 years Intresting info, thanks Caps. Had a red headed African for a few years, sweet little parrot, but grumpy. Met a girl who had the most amazing bird I have ever encountred. I for get the name of it, it was small, and just seemed to love the girl - it would climb all over her, never seeming to want to go any where else, she gave the little bird to me, and it was as cheerful and happy as, well, a bird could be. Literally danced over the owner. Made ya happy just to watch it. Never seen anything like it before or after.
My mother's neighbor has a South African Grey. It confuses her dog by telling it that it's time for a walk, sounding just like the owner. When he's allowed around the house he sits on the edge of the dog's water dish, just to annoy the dog.
Sad news...I'l think I'll have a drink in remembrance of this geriatric rara avis.
That "Walkin Dude" who could turn himself into a crow in the movie and book "the Stand" really freaked me out.
lol! Old Crows never die they just go to whisky heaven.
perfect! :P
The Walrus wasn't Paul?
Quit bogarting that peace, Herbert!
Nonsense. My ex mother in law is still alive.
"Life is a big shit sandwich and the more dough you have, the less shit you'll have to chew on."
I used to hunt crows with a passion. It took early rising and the very best camo to get ahead of their morning fly overs, and then they were hard to kill. I drilled them in the front and out the back with hard, copper-plated shot pellets and they'd still fly 100 yards or so before giving up the ghost and pinwheeling into the marsh. My son still has a crow's foot necklace from one I shot when he was a little boy 12 years ago. He picked the bird up (which was almost as big as he was) and hugged it! When I was a kid there was a liberated crow who could talk, and he flew around the neighborhood, cursing. He actually followed my brother and I one day when we went to build a campfire. He sat in a treetop and enjoyed the outing with us. My mom told me later that someone shot him. That was inevitable for a crow that had no fear of humans. They are the smartest birds in North America, and can count up to 4 or 5.
"To wield onself -- to use oneself as a tool in one's own hand -- and so to make or break that which no one else can build or ruin -- THAT is the greatest pleasure known to man! To one who has felt the chisel in his hand and set free the angel prisoned in the marble block, or to one who has felt sword in hand and set homeless the soul that a moment before lived in the body of his mortal enemy -- to those both come alike the taste of that rare food spread only for demons or for gods." -- Gordon R. Dickson, "Soldier Ask Not"
#2. To: tom007 (#1)
#3. To: tom007 (#1)
#4. To: Axenolith (#3)
#5. To: robin (#4)
#6. To: who knows what evil (#5)
#7. To: Axenolith (#3)
Very cool story.
#8. To: Axenolith (#3)
#9. To: tom007 (#1)
Don't parrots live to be a hundred years or so?
Canaries - 15 years
Budgies - 15 years
Cockatiels - 20 years
Lovebirds - 20 years
Conures - 30 years
Amazons - 50 years
African Greys - 50 years
Cockatoos - 65 years
Macaws - 60-85 years
Doves and Pigeons - 20 years
#10. To: CAPPSMADNESS (#9)
#11. To: tom007, CAPPSMADNESS (#10)
#12. To: Morgana le Fay (#0)
Crow That May Have Been the World's Oldest Dies at Age 59
#13. To: robin (#4)
Cool story, but crows give me the creeps, thanks to Hitchcock.
#14. To: Bill D Berger (#12)
#15. To: Bill D Berger (#12)
#16. To: CAPPSMADNESS (#9)
#17. To: Morgana le Fay (#0)
Crow Believed to Be Oldest in World Dies
#18. To: Morgana le Fay, christine, Zipporah, rowdee, Diana (#0)
#19. To: Morgana le Fay, all (#0)
Speaking of birds, this is pretty cool...
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