CLEVER CROW WATCHES CAT GET FOOD WHEN MEOWS, AND LEARNS TO MEOW TOO

Soon after animal lover, Neslihan Orancı, settled in to her new place in Turkey, Neslihan started making some new friends which now comes and visits her every day. Neslihan has been leaving cat food out on her patio for some of the local cats to eat. 

The furry visitors soon became familiar of her, and nowadays aren’t shy to let her know when the food is running low. The cats let her know by meowing at her door to come and refill the bowl.

This routine didn’t go unnoticed. It seems as though another visitor was keeping a close eye on the action from afar without Neslihan and her feline visitors knowing. This little visitor was sure to take good notes of what was happening. 

One day when Neslihan was home, she heard a very familiar sound - meowing coming from outside. Initially she thought that it was one of her usual visitors who had arrived to find the food bowl empty, and was now asking her for more.

While looking through the window, Neslihan soon came to realise that it it wasn't a cat calling out.  Sitting on her patio was a hooded crow who'd cleverly learned the trick of meowing to get free food. "I was very surprised. I’ve never heard a crow speak like a cat!"

After the initial shock subsided, Neslihan of course gave the crow some food. This was when she also discovered that the little bird has also made some notes of other cat vocabulary.

"As he ate, he made the sound of an angry cat, the one cats make when they're fighting, so that any cats around would be scared away."

Just by looking at how convincing the crow's cat-speak was, Neslihan is convinced that he probably pulled this brilliant ruse for a while without her noticing. But, fortunately she doesn’t mind. In fact according to her he deserves to be rewarded for his cleverness.

"It's very thought-provoking. Cats learned to communicate with us over thousands of years of domestication. But the crow learned it quickly, and for the same gain. It seems they could decode our language before we understand theirs!"