Newfoundland & Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador Opinion

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PAM FRAMPTON: What AI can teach us about animals

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My husband and I have been keeping company with crows of late.

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They have been coaxed into complicity with tidbits of food we leave for them on the deck.

Our relationship is new, but we seem to be gradually earning their trust. We are no longer confined to watching their antics through the kitchen window but can sometimes stand quietly on the deck as they swoop into view and circle closer and closer to the free buffet.

They appear to be a nesting pair — the much larger male showed up first and later returned with his other half (crows often mate for life but aren’t necessarily monogamous).

He is big and sleek, using his pointed beak like a cocktail toothpick to spear the green grapes we left as an offering. Assured that they were something worth eating, he scooped up two or three at a time before soaring off with his bounty.

The crows seem to like a schedule, and within a few days, the male was perched on the deck railing, calling raucously for food.

Members of the corvid family, they are keenly intelligent. Experts say........

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