The Viento del Noreste Environmental Defense Association has captured an unusual behavior in the Canarian crows that frequent the Jable de Famara. This platform, dedicated to bird watching and the conservation of this area of Lanzarote, captured a crow piercing a beer can to capture a lizard that was inside.
The coordinator of the platform, Carmen Portella, explains that "when they started cleaning the area, they found that there were many dead animals inside them." During this time they realized that lizards and shrews, attracted by the remaining liquids in these wrappers, get trapped inside the bottles and cannot get out, so they end up dying.
"These residues serve as a trap, in the bottle they get trapped because there is no roughness on the walls to get out and the exit of the can cuts them," explains Portella. The collective Viento del Noreste Environmental Defense Association, known as Desert Watch Lanzarote, has been collecting waste from cans or bottles that visitors throw on the ground in the place since 2014.
During these visits they noticed that some cans had "a side hole." At first they thought they were produced by shots from hunters, but then through a motion camera they were able to document that it was the crows themselves who would open the cans to hunt.
"This attitude is unique in the world, international experts have told us," says Carmen Portella. "This is an observation that has not been made before," she emphasizes. In one of the videos captured by Desert Watch you can see a crow taking a can of beer in its beak and transporting it, in another you can see the animal eating a lizard next to a chopped can.
Regarding the animals that are trapped in the cans due to human neglect, the University of Chester has carried out a study in the Jable de Famara. In addition, it narrates that at the beginning of the garbage collections there were not as many holed cans as now.
"It is a specialty of the Canarian crow, you can say that they are learning by survival to pierce the cans to be able to eat. I was observing and I saw them how they were groping with their beaks to see if there is something inside or not," says Carmen Portella.
"Not all birds can smell, but crows can. They smell inside the can, to see if there is something." This association started by a group of friends who are fond of birds and concerned with the degradation of the Jable.
In addition, the association invites you to participate in the collection of waste from the Jable de Famara, all the information appears on their web.
