Is this image of a Crow riding a Vulture real? or Photoshopped?
BTW, if it's real...it's the new definition of awesome.
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M$9 Answers
http://memecio.blogspot.com/2009/12/volando-sin-billete.html
Here is the Spanish description: Los cuervos son ciertamente inteligentes. Este año, una de las más curiosas fotografías de la naturaleza es la secuencia tomada por el fotógrafo José Luís Garcia Larred en Soria, España. En ella se aprecia un cuervo (Corvus Corax) subido a lomos de un buitre leonado (Gyps fulvus). Según se lee en los comentarios de la noticia, el fotógrafo pudo observar cómo el cuervo viajaba unos doscientos metros sobre el buitre.
Here it is, translated in Babelfish, with some verbs corrected for the more idiomatic speech: The crows are certainly intelligent. This year, one of the most peculiar photographies of the nature is the sequence taken by the photographer Jose Luis Garci'a Larred in Soria, Spain. In it a crow (Corvus Corax) is seen resting on backs of a leonado vulture (Gyps fulvus). According to what I read in the news commentaries, the photographer could observe how the crow traveled about two hundred meters on the vulture.
Here's the rest of the blog remarks, from Babelfish: The photographies of Jose Luis Garci'a Larred show a conduct nondocumented before (I did not know it at least). The reason for the flight could be to accede to the food that the vulture had detected, to save energy at the cost of the effort the vulture, or simply like game. Anyone of the three reasons proves the versatility and intelligence of these birds. Once again, the mammals we are not the unique ones in having amazingly creative conducts.
A Spanish blog reports on the birds: http://memecio.blogspot.com/2009/12/volando-sin-billete.html
The Sun link: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2463081/Crafty-crow-hitches-a-rid...
Telegraph.co.uk link http://tinyurl.com/y8zk4vc
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M$
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF...
Working with 8 professional photographers
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M$
As I mentioned in my own answer, Larred is one of those new wildlife photographers who gets more artsy than the old fashioned straight wildlife photographers and it looks to me like he does lots of processing and tricks to get artsy effects. You can't always trust wildlife photographers, consider that scandal about the award winning wolf photo recently. Anyway, I still suspect the crow was attacking the vulture rather than trying to ride it.
The photographer, Jose Luis Garcia Larren, is a nature photographer, but he is artsy and it looks to me like he does a lot of processing.
The Sun is a tabloid, and the blog is just a blog.
I would want to read of this behavior confirmed by an ornithologist because even if the photos are real they may be out of context. For example, crows attack owls and hawks here in the USA, it may be that they attack this type of vulture in Spain. If so, they would be swooping down from above and behind to drive the bigger bird away. What is captured here may well be such an attack.
Here also is a photo of a crow attacking a Red Tailed Hawk y Cleve Nash.
Also, here is a link to a discussion among birders on the subject of crows harassing birds of prey, including Bald Eagles. http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=73217
On the other hand, I did find a reference to crows and ravens apparently having a sense of humor:
"Crows also have a wicked sense of humor. There are many stories of crows snipping clothespins off lines just to watch the clean sheets fall to the ground. Others like to undo shoelaces. One group of ravens in Alaska was observed repeatedly climbing to the top of a sloped, snow covered roof and sliding down, with apparent delight, on their rears." Those are a bit apocryphal, but still they add up.
Crows are definitely very intelligent. However, it's not clear why one would want to ride a vulture for a couple of hundred yards. There doesn't seem to be any gain, despite what the blogger seems to be guessing. Unless the behavior is carefully confirmed I would suspect this was an attack.
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M$
How do I know? Reason and experience. Not only is this behavior so atypical of birds as we know them (so atypical that it seems impossible--especially cross-species cooperation that doesn't have any direct survival value) but this would destroy the delicate aerodynamics of flight.
The right-side wing of the black bird is not visible. If it's folded down alongside the bird's body, this would further spoil the aerodynamics.
Note that the black bird seems to be gripping the leading edge of the vulture's wings. But there is no visible tufting of the feathers there. In order to maintain this kind of posture on a larger bird, the black bird would have to dig down through the feathers to grip muscle and skin below. That's not apparent here at all.
Note that the black in the shadowed area of the black bird is lighter than the dark areas under the vulture — which seems impossible given that the reflectance of black feathers should be much lower than brown ones. (To test this, open the image in your photo editor and desaturate the image. The luminance for the pixels under the black bird's wings is higher than the darkest areas in shadow on the vulture.)
Finally, the black bird is either casting no shadow (by the legs) or is casting the wrong shadow (just behind the right leg). Given the apparent angle of the sun in this photo, the shadow that *is* there, shouldn't be.
But it is, as you say, awesome!
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M$
As I've observed on the given image the lightings is not even and it shows sharp edges on the crow's image.
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M$
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M$It's the "lion will lie down with the sheep" syndrome.
I would vote on it as photo-shopped, but only from what I can see here.
My own two eyes
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M$
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M$
Well researched, thank you for clearing my doubts!
Excellent answer!
Here are a couple other examples of crow intelligence:
Here is a youtube video in Japan of how to crack a nut.
Joshua Klein on the intelligence of Crows on TED
Wow. I stand correctly. Very much so.
I rescued a baby unfledged crow that fell out of a very tall tree in a campground where I worked many years ago. I gave it to the 13-year-old son of another ranger to foster, and this bird rapidly became a pet. It used to tease the cats, flying just in front of them as they chased it and taking off at the last moment; it would ride around on the dogs, and greet friends as they drove into the yard. It recognized people inside the house if they moved in rooms and would always squawk at this young man and his brother to feed him when he saw them wake in their rooms in the morning.
The Spanish photo could be of an attack, or of an inadvertent ride; but contact between the birds, whether in fun or in competition, is not uncommon.
Crows and ravens are notorious for their intelligence. They often use other animals and even humans to do their bidding. They are also one of the few birds that will use tools. The Native Americans didn't deem them tricksters for no reason. I had no doubt the photo was real.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Raven-as-Intelligent-as-the-Apes-55029.shtml
Crows are getting lazy! I've heard of birds catching rides from land animals, but this is taking it too far.
If we still had the AotD (Answer of the Day) contest. You would be the winner hands down!
My comment seems to have disappeared so I will say it again. If we still had the AotD (Answer of the Day) contest, you would win hands down. Great Answer!