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Baitball Blogger

(46,753 posts) Thu Apr 18, 2024, 12:01 PM Apr 18

Who ever thought a dirt bath would provide insecticide properties?

Photographer captures 'odd but exciting' crow behaviour known as anting

Photographer Tony Austin recently captured a peculiar image of a crow with its wings covered in dozens of tiny black ants in the throes of what appeared to be a behaviour he described as a "very odd and violent dirt bath."

snip

It wasn't until Austin got home and enlarged the images on a monitor that he noticed the crow had ants crawling all over its body. He posted the image to the Facebook group and asked people to weigh in on what they thought it might be.

snip

Some birds will sit still on an anthill and patiently allow the creatures to crawl freely through their feathers. At other times, they have been seen to pick the ants up with their beaks and rub themselves with the tiny insects.

Sensing a threat, the ants shoot a spray of formic acid from their abdomens or anal glands, which is absorbed into the bird's body and acts as a natural insecticide.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/curious-crow-behavior-known-as-anting-looks-like-violent-dirt-bath-1.6053823

8 replies

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Highlight:

Who ever thought a dirt bath would provide insecticide properties? (Original Post) Baitball Blogger Apr 18 OP

Nature is amazing 🤩 Deuxcents Apr 18 #1

crows are smart...very smart... bahboo Apr 18 #2

I realize this may not be the same chemical defense EYESORE 9001 Apr 18 #3

years ago I was collecting small beetles at a light trap mike_c Apr 18 #5

Very interesting! Fla Dem Apr 18 #4

This message was self-deleted by its author AllaN01Bear Apr 18 #6

Cool XanaDUer2 Apr 19 #7

Kick XanaDUer2 Apr 20 #8

Deuxcents

(16,298 posts)

1. Nature is amazing 🤩

Reply to Baitball Blogger (Original post)

Thu Apr 18, 2024, 12:08 PM

Apr 18

bahboo

(16,351 posts)

2. crows are smart...very smart...

Reply to Baitball Blogger (Original post)

Thu Apr 18, 2024, 01:15 PM

Apr 18

EYESORE 9001

(25,962 posts)

3. I realize this may not be the same chemical defense

Reply to Baitball Blogger (Original post)

Thu Apr 18, 2024, 02:17 PM

Apr 18

but this half-minute video gives an idea of how acrid and pungent these chemicals can be for would-be attackers.

mike_c

(36,281 posts)

5. years ago I was collecting small beetles at a light trap

Reply to EYESORE 9001 (Reply #3)

Thu Apr 18, 2024, 03:22 PM

Apr 18

I was aspirating the beetles, which involves sucking on a rubber tube to pull specimens into a small collecting jar. There was a large population of tiny beetles that night, and I decided to collect hundreds to share with students. So I'm sucking greedily on my tube, filling the collecting jar with a seething mass of tiny beetles, when my throat suddenly felt like someone had poured hot shards of glass down my gullet, followed by my lungs catching fire. All the beetles in the jar had simultaneously begun releasing a chemical defense, which I'd sucked through the tube. I gagged and choked for 30 minutes. It was awful!