Recently, I noticed that crows, which normally feed on cooked rice, bread as well as leftover meat, dead mice, birds and the like, are now turning to biscuits and other delectable confectionery items.
A devout person who has been feeding birds, including the black and grey crow, as part of a daily ‘do good’ ritual says the crows seem to be changing their preferences. Now, they go for confectionary, mainly sweet and salty crisp biscuits.
For several years, the man had been coming to the river front to serve wheat flour balls not only to the fish but to birds, too. Crows, he says, equally relished these. Now, they are saying goodbye to this traditional feed. They want a change.
As an experiment, another ‘do-gooder’, a woman, brought packets of potato chips and shavings. She discovered that her stock was consumed within minutes. But that being a costly proposition, she mixed crushed biscuit or potato with flour. And it worked.
What is this phenomenon and why this change in the food habits of these birds? They seem to have developed a liking for the food that we eat during breakfast, meals and as snacks. This change has not come about on its own. Some one could say animals are becoming choosy.
The fact of the matter is that owing to little or-non availability of their natural food, they have little option. For survival, they must eat whatever is available. In a way, non conventional food, baked, roasted or fried, is being forced on them.
The plight of birds and other animals is attributable directly to rapidly growing urbanisation and the consequent deforestation. Environmentalists, animal lovers and others have been warning against the massive destruction of forests which have been direct and indirect source of food for animals.
I may recall an instance of monkeys resorting to consuming unconventional food like eggs because urbanisation had uprooted them from their natural habitat depriving them of the natural food they used to get in their own kingdom.
An army of rhesus monkeys raided a house sending its inmates running for cover. In a swift action, they spread out grabbing whatever edible things they could lay their hands on. Some perched themselves on the dining table and consumed all the fruits stacked there.
The terrified family members hid behind partially opened doors watching the monkeys ransacking their dining place.
Two of the monkeys opened the fridge, picked up raw eggs one by one and swallowed the contents in one go. A couple of them discovered boiled eggs. It was interesting to watch them remove the shell and consume the boiled eggs with great éclat.
Such raids were not uncommon in that area but this family had rented the house only a few days earlier. The elderly lady in the house was the most shocked of all, not because of the havoc the marauders had unleashed.
She was aghast at seeing the monkeys, who figure prominently in Indian mythology, devouring eggs. “Oh my goodness, I can’t believe it,” cried out the old lady in anguish. But there was little she, or for that matter anybody else, could do about it. The house members emerged from the closed rooms only after the army of the simians retreated.
I also know about a pet dog whose food preferences were altered by the owners. Unlike the pets that were served raw meat or bones and an occasional bread-soaked in milk in olden days, this dog is given home-cooked mutton curry or chicken kofta. He is also lucky to be given well-buttered, toasted bread pieces. One boiled egg a day is a must for it. The mutt refuses to eat anything if the egg is delayed or is denied.
I wonder how this dog can accept less food? In this case, isn’t the owner choosy and not the dog?
Lalit Raizada is a journalist based in India.
