24 points

They wait for cruise ships to leave to grab fish trying to swim away. They’re probably smarter than most people.

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10 points

Based on the 2020 US election, we know at least 74,222,958 people that fall under the seagull intelligence standard.

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11 points

Not a single seagull voted for Trump. Not one. How do libs explain this, other than by voter suppression?

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4 points

Daaamn. I never thought of that. Voter fraud confirmed.

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7 points

Not a especially high bar!

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22 points

They 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”.

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12 points

I think a lot of birds have more complex internal lives than people realize. I have chickens, amd all four of them have a distinct personality and feelings.

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5 points

No kidding. My yard has had more chickens than I can count over the years. Every one an individual.

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3 points

And all of them evil

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2 points
*

There’s literally a Sea Chanty from the 1600s about this. “Three White Gulls Were Flying”

It was a Crow’s Nest Chanty. Not a rowing or pull and haul Chanty.

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2 points

Idk if that’s like a weird spelling from another country, but I’ve always read it as Shanty.

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1 point

There’s a number of spellings, since it’s a word from a time before standardised English. At least, that’s what I think.

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2 points

Do tell!

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Since 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.

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2 points

They’re probably just “dumb” in comparison to corvids and parrots and the like.

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22 points

Just because an animal is territorial and good at killing does not mean it’s smart.

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3 points

This 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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The approach is pretty smart though and it isnt standard seagull behaviour, so they are inventive. Also they are about the same size as pigeons.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xRPTBhmcyXY

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2 points

I dunno where you live, but on the coasts of the US, Seagulls are about 3 times the size of pigeons.

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2 points

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xRPTBhmcyXY

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.

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Yes but we already know about cops.

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2 points

Good at killing if you count targets they didn’t mean to kill I guess!

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62 points
*

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.

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6 points

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.

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-2 points

Which 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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7 points

A 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

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1 point

A land bird flew into my window so hard I was worried it died this morning. This happens once a month

The same bird???

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1 point

Possibly, I didn’t see a corpse in my garden so I’m guessing it lives

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0 points

That’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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2 points

Funny story, never hit a bird with my car in Quebec, until I drove into Manitoba, where I proceeded to wack 3 in 2 days.

Birds seem to be stupid by region.

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-2 points

You probably should drive less or get an electric bike.

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17 points

Put some stickers on your window

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1 point

That just gives them a target. They can’t see the window. This is a real problem in some cities. AFAIK no one has found a real solution other than frosting the windows, but then humans can’t see through the windows and get irritated.

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9 points

Wtf. Would you please do something about that?

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-1 points

Like what? It’s a bay window like any other, I have blackout curtains drawn across it most of the time so I can sleep past 6. I’m not putting any stickers or anything on it that the hoa will get pissy about

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8 points

What do you want him to do, start a bird college?

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26 points
*

In all seriousness that’s more of a sensory limitation than an intelligence limitation. IIRC birds’ eyes work differently from mammals and they can’t see glass pretty much at all.

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0 points

Yea I know, more fun to just imagine they’re dumb though

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51 points

If the land birds get any smarter they’re going to have to start worrying about a whole lot more. Like taxes, or rent.

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31 points

I mean some birds have been shown exchanging money for goods and services, so it’s not that far off.

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24 points

Oh god no, someone needs to warn the birds about capitalism.

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27 points

Wait till this person hears about parrots

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5 points

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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27 points

For 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.

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2 points

My 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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17 points
*

The 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.

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4 points
*

Do you mean goldfishes are like koi? I cannot fathom that, like… is it really?

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