Bully
Bird?
HY01 Crane #5
March
19, 2003 ICF Update by Sara Zimorski
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| HY01#5 in pen with some HY02 chicks Sara Zimorski, ICF |
HY 2001 Crane #5 continues to dominate the social hierarchy at the pen. The aggression is not random as it?s directed towards certain chicks, especially chicks #7, #8, #15, and #16. It sounds funny and not very scientific, but #5 has turned into a bully. At first it seemed he was just picking on the male chicks but now his targets are evenly split; 8 and 16 are males, 7 and 15 are females. Although we feel badly for the chicks getting harassed, it?s fascinating to observe the social interactions between the birds.
Picking
on Lower Birds
You might think #5 is just defending his position in the flock and reasserting
his dominance over the other birds, but what?s interesting is the birds
he picks on most are not that high in the hierarchy and don?t really present
a challenge to him. Chick #8 is a bird who wants to be dominant. He acts
tough toward the costume, often challenging and threatening us when we
go in the pen, but is very often displaced by birds in the flock. Crane
#16 is a large male and is somewhere in the middle of the hierarchy but
is rather mellow and doesn?t seek out challenges or fights. Finally, #
7 and #15 are both rather submissive, low ranking females, who rarely
bother anyone. So, maybe you would think he?s being aggressive to the
submissive birds in the flock, but this isn?t entirely true either. Yearling
Crane #5 actually seems to like chick #9, a small female, who is probably
the most submissive bird in the entire flock. In fact, one day after we
added food to the feeders Yearling #5 chased all the chicks away and kept
them from eating, except for Crane #9, who he let eat from the same feeder
as him.
"He Started It!"
Often there?s nothing that even instigates the aggression, or at least
nothing we can detect. All of a sudden (or least that?s how it seems to
us) Yearling #5 will start walking towards one of his targets. He?ll stalk
them all around the pen, sometimes running and chasing for a short distance
and jabbing at them. This continues for several minutes, then seems to
escalate to more running and chasing which eventually causes the chick
to flush and fly, sometimes just across the pen, and sometimes out of
the pen. On several occasions, mostly with chick #8, we?ve seen Yearling
#5 continue to pursue the chick in the air, and when the chick lands Yearling
#5 lands next to him and starts chasing until he flushes once again. Though
the aggression seems rather intense at the time, it?s always rather short
lived. By the end of the day, all the birds are together again in the
pen.
Although the aggression seems to have increased over the winter, it really
hasn?t been a big problem--though we thought it might be with a large
group of birds. However, we?re very glad to have the enlarged pen, which
gives everyone plenty of space and gives the birds room to get away when
being chased or pursued.
Journey
North is pleased to feature this educational adventure
made possible by the Whooping
Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP).
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