WEEKEND: Talk tonight in Forks to focus on crows’ grief for their own
Published 12:01 am Saturday, November 7, 2015
NOTE: “Today” and “tonight” refer to Friday, Nov. 6.
FORKS — A talk on crow “funeral” behavior by doctoral student Kaeli Swift will take place in the Hemlock Forest Room at the Olympic Natural Resources Center at 7 p.m. today.
The center is located at 1455 S. Forks Ave.
Swift works under the guidance of Dr. John Marzluff, professor of wildlife-habitat relationships, avian social ecology and demography at the University of Washington’s School of Environmental and Forest Sciences.
Her research follows long-reported observations of corvids (jays, magpies, crows and ravens) vocalizing and gathering around their fallen comrades and having ritual-like “funerals.”
The basis for her research is that crows, like a number of other animals including some primates, elephants, dolphins and other corvids, appear to perform funeral behaviors once they discover a dead member of their own species.
It is Swift’s hope that her team’s research will provide a more compassionate lens with which to understand crows and contribute to a growing movement of corvid enthusiasts.
Refreshments will be served, and a potluck of a favorite dessert is encouraged.
For more information, phone Frank Hanson at 360-374-4556 or email fsh2@uw.edu.
