Subject: Re: bird behavior (RODO and GRJA playing?)
Date: Dec 5 10:09:34 1994
From: Christopher Hill - cehill at u.washington.edu



---------(story about sliding pigeons and riding Gray Jay deleted)----

Hi Katie,

if you get a chance to check out National Geographic from last (?) month,
there is a kind of photo-essay on animals "at play," including pictures
of a raven which found a snowy slope, then lay down on its back, beak
downhill, and slid down. Got up, all excited, and repeated the
behavior. This same incident (or another set of Ravens doing the same
thing??) was written up in the Ibis about fifteen years ago. The author
measured the angle of the slope they slid down, commented on the snow
texture and the weather conditions. That made it *science* I guess,
but the dry objective report only seemed to make the raven's actions
funnier.

My personal bets: the gray jay on the chair lift was playing, the pigeon
on the railing was just confused.

Chris Hill
Zoology Department NJ-15
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195
cehill at u.washington.edu