Any bird who lives primarily in the water is dumb as shit. They have unlimited protection above and around them, so they have zero adaptive pressure to put anything into their intelligence. Land birds have a lot to worry about so their brains are approaching human levels of intellect.
58A land bird flew into my window so hard I was worried it died this morning. This happens once a month to my knowledge and I don’t spend long in my bedroom outside sleeping. Land birds aren’t smart outside of a few select species lol
7That's less them being stupid and more their eyes are on the side of their head so they can't see directly in front of them.
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Not true at all. There's tons of adaptive pressure. If there weren't, we wouldn't see the thousands of pelagic and shorebird species that we do. But even if what you say about the threat from predation were true --its not-- there would still be adaptive pressure from differential reproduction rates and access to nutrients.
6Which is why you see ducks with all their spec points into r---ing and not getting r--ed. Yes they're adapting but not to the environment.
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I’m sure there’s some seagull out there with a 1000-yard stare who went through the most fucked up shit of his life in the 90’s and still remembers it like it was yesterday. He hangs out down by the bars and drinks discarded alcohol out of the trash, trying to forget, and then flies around drunk bumping into things.
The other seagulls look at him and shake their heads with pity “he used to be such a good gull.. so full of promise.”
40Too soon, too soon, too soon.
He stole food from Madonna too soon.
Too young, too young, too soon too soon.
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I don't know that I'd trust an ornathologist to know how the brain chemistry works. But I do trust that they're dumb. Lacking memory isn't predictive of being dumb, but there's probably some correlation. Maybe seagulls have perfect memory but just want to flip human observers the bird.
29Maybe seagulls have perfect memory but just want to flip human observers the bird.
My spirit animal
6
Wait till this person hears about parrots
27For real, there are at least some parrots that are likely to outlive their owners. Like if you get a pet parrot you do it considering you will likely pass it on to someone else in your fucking will.
26The sadder part of this is that many "pet" parrots live much shorter than their natural life in the wild because their owners don't know how to care for them. They're also extremely intelligent, some researchers argue that macaws can be considered sapient for example.
Even more widespread problem with koi and goldfish. They can live well into their 80s and can grow up to many pounds over that time, yet most people have their goldfish die after two weeks and just assume that's their natural lifespan because they're irresponsible owners. Hint: that glass bowl is not cutting it, there isn't a single species of fish that can be healthy in a tank without an active circulation pump and filter. Also fun fact: the Western misconception that goldfish can be kept in bowls comes from the fact that in China and Japan where they originate, owners would sometimes put them in clay bowls to show them off (which were about a meter in diameter BTW, not the soccer ball sized bowls you see nowadays), they were kept in those bowls very rarely, they were traditionally raised in large ponds.
16My great grandad got a couple of cockatoos when he was in his 20s right after ww2 and they still managed to outlive him. Only by a few weeks mind you - poor things starved themselves to death out of grief after he died. He told us not to worry about rehoming them because he knew they wouldn't be able to take the loss of loosing him at such an age.
He only had them because he took up conservation work and they're just, native to Australia. They lived out in a big aviary he'd built with trees and bushes and even a water feature along with other birds he ended up aquiring. I adored those birds, but I genuinely can't understand how or why you'd keep such a big beautiful intelligent bird as a pet in a cage on the other side of the world and it always weirds me out when I see these birds I grew up watching roam free eating all our damn lemons in someone's house as a pet. It's like if you an American saw someone keeping a racoon as a pet.
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Or crows, they reach roughly the same age and ravens can turn fucking 80 in captivity, not sure how long they live in the wild tho!
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They wait for cruise ships to leave to grab fish trying to swim away. They're probably smarter than most people.
24They have enough thought process to play. Watch them fly. They play in the thermals. Do all manner of aerobatics. They know how to steal from humans. That's not "dumb".
21Since there is videos of seagulls hunting pigeons i'd say they are pretty smart birds. They just dont give a fuck to pretend around people.
13Just because an animal is territorial and good at killing does not mean it's smart.
22The approach is pretty smart though and it isnt standard seagull behaviour, so they are inventive. Also they are about the same size as pigeons.
6This entire argument is a joke. They are birds, not even mammals, what can apes know about bird-logic? Einstein said you cant judge a fish for how well it can climb a tree but our bias for human smarts remains. Judge a seagull in the context of a seagull and the result will be the same as for every single other species, some are smarter/dumber then others, all have their own strengths and weaknesses. A smart seagull is the one most consistently successful and healthy as a seagull.
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They're probably just "dumb" in comparison to corvids and parrots and the like.
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Permanently Deleted
9I don’t remember the 90s either.
9“You’re dumb”
-He
10Back then, the Internet was cool.
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Then wanted your French fries in the 90’s and they still want them today
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