The 90s are nothing. I remember a flock of seagulls from the 80s that are still flying around.
They just flew (so far away).
Hello, fellow old people. My 10 year old is sporting that cut, unironicaly.
Any bird who lives primarily in the water is dumb as shit. They have unlimited protection above and around them, so they have zero adaptive pressure to put anything into their intelligence. Land birds have a lot to worry about so their brains are approaching human levels of intellect.
If the land birds get any smarter they're going to have to start worrying about a whole lot more. Like taxes, or rent.
I mean some birds have been shown exchanging money for goods and services, so it's not that far off.
Oh god no, someone needs to warn the birds about capitalism.
Birds are very good at stealing things, so I think it's too late for that
Stealing requires the belief that other people can own things. They are simply taking what is rightfully theirs. Birds are billionaires.
A land bird flew into my window so hard I was worried it died this morning. This happens once a month to my knowledge and I don’t spend long in my bedroom outside sleeping. Land birds aren’t smart outside of a few select species lol
In all seriousness that's more of a sensory limitation than an intelligence limitation. IIRC birds' eyes work differently from mammals and they can't see glass pretty much at all.
Not true at all. There's tons of adaptive pressure. If there weren't, we wouldn't see the thousands of pelagic and shorebird species that we do. But even if what you say about the threat from predation were true --its not-- there would still be adaptive pressure from differential reproduction rates and access to nutrients.
I’m sure there’s some seagull out there with a 1000-yard stare who went through the most fucked up shit of his life in the 90’s and still remembers it like it was yesterday. He hangs out down by the bars and drinks discarded alcohol out of the trash, trying to forget, and then flies around drunk bumping into things.
The other seagulls look at him and shake their heads with pity “he used to be such a good gull.. so full of promise.”
This reminds me of a talk I had with my dad, an equine veterinarian for 40 years. I'd seen that video of a horse eating a chick online and someone in the comments explained that horses are naturally opportunistic eaters and that's why it took the chance to munch it down. I confidently told him this later on and he said, 'nah, they're just stupid'.
If you throw a blanket over a horses head, it will think it's dead and starve to death if you don't remove the blanket
Are they stupid or do they know that death is just a dark void?
Got me wondering weather or not horses actually know something we don't. They always had shifty eyes.
I don't know that I'd trust an ornathologist to know how the brain chemistry works. But I do trust that they're dumb. Lacking memory isn't predictive of being dumb, but there's probably some correlation. Maybe seagulls have perfect memory but just want to flip human observers the bird.
Ornithologists do actual science, they aren't just bird watchers. An ornithologist is pretty much the only one I would trust about this because they are the ones studying the birds.
That and the bird lawyers.
Idk bird lawyers probably don’t deal with birds at their smartest. Human lawyers likely don’t think we’re intelligent life either
Idk man, I wouldn't trust those guys. I think some of them are being paid off by the government to defend the position that birds are real. Crazy stuff, I know.
Maybe seagulls have perfect memory but just want to flip human observers the bird.
My spirit animal
Wait till this person hears about parrots
For real, there are at least some parrots that are likely to outlive their owners. Like if you get a pet parrot you do it considering you will likely pass it on to someone else in your fucking will.
The sadder part of this is that many "pet" parrots live much shorter than their natural life in the wild because their owners don't know how to care for them. They're also extremely intelligent, some researchers argue that macaws can be considered sapient for example.
Even more widespread problem with koi and goldfish. They can live well into their 80s and can grow up to many pounds over that time, yet most people have their goldfish die after two weeks and just assume that's their natural lifespan because they're irresponsible owners. Hint: that glass bowl is not cutting it, there isn't a single species of fish that can be healthy in a tank without an active circulation pump and filter. Also fun fact: the Western misconception that goldfish can be kept in bowls comes from the fact that in China and Japan where they originate, owners would sometimes put them in clay bowls to show them off (which were about a meter in diameter BTW, not the soccer ball sized bowls you see nowadays), they were kept in those bowls very rarely, they were traditionally raised in large ponds.
Or crows, they reach roughly the same age and ravens can turn fucking 80 in captivity, not sure how long they live in the wild tho!
They wait for cruise ships to leave to grab fish trying to swim away. They're probably smarter than most people.
Based on the 2020 US election, we know at least 74,222,958 people that fall under the seagull intelligence standard.
Not a single seagull voted for Trump. Not one. How do libs explain this, other than by voter suppression?
Not a especially high bar!
They have enough thought process to play. Watch them fly. They play in the thermals. Do all manner of aerobatics. They know how to steal from humans. That's not "dumb".
I think a lot of birds have more complex internal lives than people realize. I have chickens, amd all four of them have a distinct personality and feelings.
No kidding. My yard has had more chickens than I can count over the years. Every one an individual.
"The greatest trick the devil ever played was making man believe he doesn't exist"
Those seagulls remember... and they'll have their revenge for that hot dog bun you scared them off in 04'. tick tok
Since there is videos of seagulls hunting pigeons i'd say they are pretty smart birds. They just dont give a fuck to pretend around people.
Just because an animal is territorial and good at killing does not mean it's smart.
The approach is pretty smart though and it isnt standard seagull behaviour, so they are inventive. Also they are about the same size as pigeons.
