Sneaking a smoke
THEY obviously didn’t read the health warnings. This pair of hoodie crows were caught on camera sneaking crafty stolen cigarettes.
The ringleader here was spotted flying overhead in the Maldives with a cigarette packet in its beak.
British tourists Judie and Tony Ellis snapped it perching on a thatched roof and pulling the cigarettes out for its mates. Like seasoned smokers, the crows held them by the filter end and strutted about, the cigarettes dangling from their beaks.
Judie, who lives in aptly-named Crowborough, East Sussex, said: “The crow was taking the cigarettes out. The other crows were picking them up. It was amazing that they seemed to have them in their beaks the right way round.”
British Trust for Ornithology spokesman Paul Stancliffe said: “Crows are intelligent and very inquisitive. Tobacco is vegetable matter, so maybe they thought they could eat it.”
Researchers claim crows are as clever as apes because they make and use tools and even play tricks on each other.
The Indian House Crows on the Maldives resemble the UK’s hooded species.
But they have not made the big leap which would confirm them as geniuses, not bird brains. They are not yet able to use a lighter – which is good news for the owners of thatched houses.
