A video showing a ‘gorilla-crow’ has Twitter users baffled. The clip, posted by the @keita_simpson handle, in Japan’s Nagoya, shows a bird using its wings to give it momentum – on the ground.
Outstretched, the black bird ‘walks’ using its wings much as an ape would.
Keitaro, whose post went viral, was quoted by Newsweek as saying that first he was shocked at seeing the ‘zombie-like’ crow; later, he thought it was pretty.
And so began the debate of evolution and new creatures in the world. Some users drew ape-bird hybrids in response to the post.
The debate however was quickly resolved by another twitter user called Kaeli Swift. The corvid researcher, in a series of tweets, wrote: “First, this is a large-billed crow, which is why the face is looking a little out of proportion.”
She then explains that the crow is not walking on his wings. “ "This bird is not missing its legs and propping itself up with its wings, that would be physically impossible," she wrote. "Also, not that it's relevant to the answer, but a crow without legs couldn't fly, because it couldn't generate any lift. So legless crow is a dead crow.
"What it's actually doing is sunning itself. When birds sun they drop their wings and cock their tails. At the right angle that could obscure the legs and tail making it look like they're missing.
"Usually the mouth is open and the body is closer to the ground, making the behavior more obvious, but perhaps the videographer caught it in a moment of transition."
