Photographer captures crow behaviour known as anting.
A lucky photographer, Tony Austin, had recently stumbled upon the sight of a crow engaging in this routine, which left him astounded yet awestruck by the fascinating act.
At first sight, the flesh crawling yet puzzling sight of ants crawling onto the stationary bird may leave many bewildered, but such is a form of self-care and normalcy in bird grooming. This is known as ‘Anting’, which involves the act of the bird rubbing the ant onto its plumage and tail feathers, triggering the ant’s defence mechanism to release formic acid, a pesticide potent enough to kill lice, mites and to keep fungi away.
Another theory pointed out that birds may turn to using ants like an after-shave to soothe their feathers through what’s called ‘molting’. Furthermore, other theories have suggested that anting is a way of emptying the poison sac in ants before the bird can safely ingest the morsels. In fact, more than 200 species of birds are known to do such maintenance behaviour. Ants are not the only insect used as they have been observed to have anted with other insects such as grasshoppers, snails, bombardier beetles and millipedes.
Evidence in the studies "Anting in Blue Jays: Evidence in Support of a Food-Preparatory Function" led by authors Thomas Eisner and Daniel Aneshansley, showed that two out of the six blue jays who had never been exposed to insects immediately started anting when given an ant. This implied that anting is a genetic behaviour, and more often than not, the sole purpose of anting was done so to remove traces of the ants’ formic acid rather than personal grooming. Perhaps it’s safe to say that the purpose of anting does not limit to only cleaning the ants before consumption given the plethora of benefits achievable through this unusual practice.
Birds have always engaged in odd yet complex behaviours which arouse the curiosity of many researchers and biologists. Till this day, the topic on animal behaviour remains an enigma, leaving many researchers and biologists scratching their heads and wanting to dig deeper .
Courtesy of Amelia Wang.
Main Source: BBC
Photographer Tony Austin of Metchosin, B.C., said he had no idea what he was observing until he enlarged this image of crows at Victoria's Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary on a computer screen and saw that one of the birds was covered in ants. (Tony Austin Photography)
References
Eisner, T., & Aneshansley, D. (2008). "Anting" in Blue Jays: evidence in support of a food-preparatory function. Chemoecology, 18(4), 197–203. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00049-008-0406-3
https://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/news/science/anting-widespread-fascinating-purpose-uncertain/
https://www.parkbugle.org/when-birds-make-the-most-of-ants/