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| | On Monday, hot actor John Abraham posed in a cage for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to protest the caging of birds. Shot by ace photographer Alan Abraham, the ad is part of PETA's campaign against the illegal trading and trafficking of birds in India. Birds Need Freedom and the Company of Other Birds Because few humans care enough to acknowledge and appreciate birds' deep intelligence and feelings, these animals suffer terribly. If more people appreciated how rich and complex birds' lives are in the wild, humans' exploitation of birds, fuelled by the illegal "pet" trade, would decrease. In their natural habitats, birds talk to each other just as humans do. Some bird species, such as crows, have hundreds of different calls that ornithological researchers can tell apart. Birds also make sounds that we don't usually hear, like the hushed chatter and whispering between two nesting birds. They take turns talking, just as we do in conversation. Birds are remarkably adept at navigating the skies and remembering exactly where they have hidden thousands of tiny seeds each fall. To find their way back to these caches, birds use the sun, stars, landmarks and sometimes the Earth's electromagnetic field to guide them. Birds also play, dance, engage in 'hide-and-seek' and other structured games and even slide down snow banks and climb back up over and over again for the sheer joy of it. Many species, like geese and pigeons, mate for life and will not take a second mate if their first is lost. All birds crave company because they are meant to be in flocks, and they are keen to preen each other, fly as a pair or group, play together, and share egg incubation duties. Birds also grieve as we do. Some reports of this include the following: After a car killed a coucal's (a member of the cuckoo family) mate, he refused to leave her side or stop trying to revive her; a robin who crippled his rival in a fight fed him and kept him alive; and pairs of terns lifted up a hurt flock mate by his wings, carrying him to safety. In some ways, chickens are as smart as little kids, according to animal behaviourist Dr Chris Evans of Bristol University in England, who studies chickens. Chickens can learn to use switches and levers to change the temperature in their surroundings, and some have learned to open little doors to feeding areas. Discussing their various abilities, he explains, 'As a trick at conferences, I sometimes list their attributes, without mentioning chickens, and people [think] I'm talking about monkeys'. African gray parrots can have a greater aptitude for learning than a 5-year-old child. Veterinarian Dr Brian L. Speer reports, 'We're beginning to realize these animals are impressively intelligent. They're a lot smarter than we used to think'. Alex, a parrot, can understand and use hundreds of English words and phrases and can even creatively combine words when he needs to. He made up 'banana cracker' to mean banana chip and 'rock corn' to mean a rock-like Brazil nut in its shell. Crows sometimes use tools fashioned from twigs to pick up food. But one crow amazed birdwatchers when she was seen going one step further and making her own tool! She cleverly bent a piece of wire in order to hook a piece of food that she couldn't otherwise reach. |
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Anupamaa
Vasudha
