The Amazing Animals of the War on Terrorism

mysteriousuniverse.org ^ | June 9, 2014 | Brent Swancer

[BenLurkin]

Much of the world is currently locked in a seemingly never ending war on terrorism. In this ongoing battle, a great amount of money and resources have been called into play. New ways to counter the threat of terrorists are constantly being pursued and developed, but perhaps the most unusual area of pursuit lies in the use of animals as antiterrorism weapons.

...

Crows

A curious avenue of experimental research into identifying known terrorists has been the use of crows to pick out a suspicious face from a crowd.

The reasoning behind the research lies in the fact that in addition to high intelligence and an exceptional long-term memory, crows also happen to possess extremely acute discriminatory abilities. Simply put, crows have an astonishing talent for remembering and picking out individual faces, even those of human beings.

John Marzluff, a Wildlife Sciences Professor at the University of Washington, explained that the military approached him to study this ability of crows for possible use in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden and other terrorists at large.

Marzluff’s team did a study in which they wore caveman masks while tagging crows around campus. This angered the crows, and they took to swooping down and harassing the researchers when they wore the masks. However, when the masks were removed, the crows left them alone. It wasn’t just any mask that would set them off, either. It was found that even if others were wearing slightly different masks, the crows would specifically target the particular mask of their tormentor. Other independent tests have also demonstrated the birds’s remarkable ability to recognize and remember individual human faces.

[Twotone]

So all we have to do is get terrorists to annoy crows & then the crows will keep an eye on them? :-)

Interesting all the same...

[dblshot]

But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only

That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.

Nothing farther then he uttered — not a feather then he fluttered —

Till I scarcely more than muttered “Other friends have flown before —

On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before.”

Then the bird said “Nevermore.”

[BenLurkin]

Nice!

[angry elephant]

“So all we have to do is get terrorists to annoy crows & then the crows will keep an eye on them? :-)”

I have these semi-feral cats that live on my acreage and I feed them outside.

The crows are a nuisance because they want to eat the cat food, and they have a certain chatter among themselves to say that food is out.

But they have a big, loud annoyed chatter when a raccoon comes to eat the kitty food. They do not like raccoons. Maybe because the raccoons have their masked face or maybe because they hate the competition, but they get really disturbed.

[huldah1776]

raccoons eat eggs and baby birds.