Revenge of crows

Crows are often as­sociated with the dark and mysterious as seen in literature, mythology, music, art.

It has led to the crow being often used to symbolize darkness, bad luck, and death.

Edgar Allan Poe even used a talk­ing raven to symbolize “mournful, never-ending remembrance.”

Crows are also portrayed in films like “Sleeping Beauty” and “Snow White” as pets of antagonists Ma­leficent and The Evil Queen, re­spectively.

We know them as black crows or ravens, a species of the ge­nus Corvus, a family of medium to large sized birds.

Black crows are considered more intelligent than most birds. Research shows that crows generally have amazing memory. They can hold grudges.

A University of Washington study found that crows can remember faces of humans who have wronged them and would gather other birds to attack them.

Though crows find comfort in soli­tude, they also engage in groups. A group of crows is called, oh my God, a murder!

When one of their own is killed, the murder will mourn and surround the deceased and would find out what or who killed their member.

The murder will then chase the killer. This is called mobbing.

John Marzluff, a crow expert, said that mobbing can cover a distance of until 100 meters. Years may pass, but crows could still remember.

There is a scientific explanation to this. Researchers found that crows have a region in their brain similar to a mam­mal’s amygdala.

The amygdala is the region responsible for our emotions, survival in­stincts and memories as well as negative associations.

USEFUL TIPSFROM LIVING WITH FOLK WIS­DOM, BY ABERCIOV. ROTOR, Ph.D.:

Farmers immerse and clean seeds of field crops in warm water (around 60 degrees Celsius) before plant­ing them.

This traditional practice kills harmful bacteria and fungi following principle of pasteurization, as in pas­teurizing milk, a discovery made 200 years ago by French biologist Louis Pasteur.

Send your questions on anything and everything to Kuya Kim through my Twitter account @kuyakim_atien­za using #AlaminKayKuyaKim.

-Kim Atienza