WodenKrait wrote:
Recognising banners is actually something that you might be able to train pigeons to do; there was something called Project Seahunt in the early 80s (that unfortunately had a tragic conclusion) that trialled with excellent results using pigeons for maritime search and rescue operations, so there's no doubt they have the eyes and brain to pick our things on the ground with alacrity.
Using raptors to hunt other birds is of course an excellent use of their natural abilities and inclination.
As with all animal training, the key is to exploit an animal's natural instincts and not work against them. If the animal's instincts provide almost no leverage (e.g. cats) there's not much you can do with them.
Cheers,
-Kyle
Using raptors to hunt other birds is of course an excellent use of their natural abilities and inclination.
As with all animal training, the key is to exploit an animal's natural instincts and not work against them. If the animal's instincts provide almost no leverage (e.g. cats) there's not much you can do with them.
Cheers,
-Kyle
Fair enough. I guess cats would still make a good ground based alternative for picking off messenger pigeons.
Given that the only three outstanding examples I can recall of successful cat trainers in modern times are an american ex-movie big cat handler applying the same sort of training but scaled down to domestic sized cats, a buddhist monk in Thailand who scouts inquisitive kittens to train, and a russian circus bloke who also uses the monk's scouting method for likely kittens, it seems a matter of finding the right cats and a dedicated enough trainer with the patience of a monk, the courage of a lion tamer and the cheerful madness of a clown to attempt the task in the first place.
Ah well, there's always ferrets and rats as sneaky thieves, but they don't tend to live as long as cats, and may not be worth the time spent training them, unless the offspring pick up trained behaviors from the parents earlier than ones from untrained parents. I blame the ancient movie Beastmaster for a fondness for ferrets as sneaky little thief assistants.
Crows, Ravens and Magpies are good a grabbing shiny things, collecting them in a central spot, and easy to train with food and a bit of patience. There's a young lady IRL who now gets shiny gifts from the flock she'd been feeding for a few years.
