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malaise

(284,329 posts)
Fri May 23, 2025, 07:59 AM 7 hrs ago

Love this - Like a Tom Cruise stunt: hawk uses traffic patterns to target prey

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/23/tom-cruise-stunt-hawk-uses-pedestrian-crossing-target-prey

It is a tactic worthy of Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt: wait until a beeping pedestrian crossing indicates a traffic queue has formed then use the line of cars as cover to reach your target. But this isn’t a scene from Mission: Impossible – it’s the behaviour of a young hawk.

The discovery is not the first time birds have been found to make use of an urban environment. Crows, for example, are known to drop foods such as walnuts on to roads for cars to crush them open.

However, the researcher behind a new study says it is the most advanced case so far of raptors making use of traffic patterns.
😀

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Love this - Like a Tom Cruise stunt: hawk uses traffic patterns to target prey (Original Post) malaise 7 hrs ago OP
Very cool! Animals are not dumb PJMcK 7 hrs ago #1
Great post malaise 7 hrs ago #2
Clever girl. Baitball Blogger 6 hrs ago #3

PJMcK

(23,632 posts)
1. Very cool! Animals are not dumb
Fri May 23, 2025, 08:05 AM
7 hrs ago

Animals are quite smart about their environments. They have to be in order to feed, breed and survive.

We humans fantasize about communicating with alien lifeforms but we can barely communicate with the other creatures on Earth... let alone with other humans.

Interestingly, birds are the direct descendants of the dinosaurs. those creatures weren't so stupid, either.

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