Pet Of The Week
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"Old Yeller" the crow prefers to sit on the wire above Traci until
she leaves the food for him. Hence the lack of a close up photo
of the two of them together. Traci raised him from a baby and she
claims he now recognizes and follows her.
Photo by Pat Robinson
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Old Yeller crows for his dinner
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Many people adopt wild animals as pets but it's a little unusual to adopt a crow. That's exactly what happened however
when Traci and William (they declined to publish their last name) found an abandoned baby crow in their backyard one day a
few years ago. It was squawking so loud they dubbed the baby crow "Old Yeller" and fed it oatmeal, mixed with cooked eggs
until it grew to adult size. Today, Traci's routine is to come to a corner near where they live and put out food for their feathered
friend. Traci claims that Old Yeller knows her and her life so well that it actually follows her... but not just down to the corner.
"He will follow me even when I take the bus to the Junction or to White Center," she says. He does not fly down to meet her
however, preferring to keep a safe distance until she puts the food out and walks away. There is some scientific evidence to
support Traci's claim of crow recognition. Researchers at the University of Washington have determined that crows do indeed
recall specific human faces as reported by the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/science/26crow.html?fta=y
How does Traci know that the bird that seems to know her is the same one wherever she goes? "That's always been a big question mark," she said. |
