The Game of Go

I have been playing Go for a number of years, but only recently did I decide to teach it to my kid.

It occurred to me in the midst of explanations that the rules, or the object of the game rather, has some uncanny similarities to the territorial behavior or strategies Jungle Crow families may exhibit. This got me wondering if perhaps ancient ornithologists, thousands of years ago might have been inspired to make a game based on the natural laws of corvid behavior they observed in the wild.

It is merely a whimsical observation, but I have run it by the experts just out of curiosity as the more I think about it, the more I become convinced.  I will report what, if anything they report to back to me.

One wonders how abundant Jungle Crows were in China four thousand years ago. Hmmm.

I have also come up with a working hypothesis and experiment to help prove my assumption that the game was inspired by Crow behavior:

Hypothesis: Go, or Igo (as it is called in Japan) was inspired by watching wild Crows. The game is based strongly on their natural territorial, family group behavior.  While Crows share a lot of behavioral similarities with humans, fundamentally, I believe, they have an all together different character which directs their individula and family/group behavior. Therefore, I hypothesize that if you give two humans who are totally unfamiliar with Go, a Go set, and ask them to play around, and invent an adversarial game, where one person must win, and one must lose, or at least a tie can be reached, they will not manage to come up with the game of Go because their human character will lead them to invent, and follow rules, and take actions which are different from what a Crow would do.  

 

Taming Fig

Taming Fig has been a challenge. I have all the usual time constraints of a full-time worker, and parent. I have a young kid, and a cat in the house. And Fig by her very nature, is the most wild, crazy, neurotic animal ever in existence.

So, while I am my own worst critic, I feel I must congratulate myself on the progress Fig has made considering less than ideal circumstances for taming a wild Jungle Crow. Fig is certainly deserving of tons of praise for how far she has come. Integrating into a human family is no easy transition for a wild bird, and she has the additional, and unusual reality to face, that her bird family is right outside with her, every day, tugging away at her heartstrings, creating what must, at times, be a sea of confusing emotions for poor Figgy. 

Yet she manages to thrive. 

Outside she elects to stay and chat with family as much as she likes. And that is nice for her. And when she comes in, she simply switches gears completely, to life with humans, and a cat.
She seems to live this dual life successfully. 

Recently, Fig has much more confidence with the cat. She deliberately engages in chases around the house which rarely result in much fearful squawking, usually none at all. But it is scary to watch! It is very hard to trust a cat. If the cat ever does scare her a bit too much, I am always there to intervene, and Fig just leaps to me for immediate safety. Quite often the two of them pile up face to face, and the resulting awkward silence, and stunned faces is just hilarious. Neither can figure out what to do next. Fig very deliberately goes looking for the cat, to get a good high speed chase going. And she has virtually  no issues coming to the living room to sit and watch TV now either. She can sit on her own on the back of a chair, or snuggle in my lap. She never poops on me. She will easily sit an hour before asking to go to the bathroom.  Her confidence is way, way up compared to six months ago. And it keeps on improving, which is good, because she can still improve quite a bit. You cannot push it, you just have to wait for her to decide she is ready for a new comfort zone boundary expansion...and then one day, it happens.  I just hold her loosely, and let her wander out onto my knee or a chair, or my shoulder, then gesture her to come back, and she does, or maybe she doesn't, being rascally and playful. She obviously understands that pooping in the house is a no-no, but she can still do it from time to time if something startles, or scares her.  She has jumped on my wife's things many times, but never once had an accident on her things, probably because my wife goes, 'Oh no, Figgy, no, no, no...Please.' in that gentle voice of hers which Fig likes. Fig is a very good listener, and she understands what stuff is whose to an amazing degree. I assure you, if Fig had pooped on my wife's things, that would be the end of her living room adventures, and probably my life. I have a lot of confidence in Fig. Teaching a young boy, and a cat to move slowly is the truly hard part, so Fig usually comes out to sit with me. More and more she understands that I do, and will protect her. This is obviously more a human than a Crow thing, but it is very welcome to see that she understands this to a greater and greater extent as time goes by. This aspect of our relationship carries over to the world outside as well, though she tends to be more independent when we go to the park, because she wants to chat with her family, play on her own a bit, explore, and push boundaries, or hang out with utter strangers for some reason. She is a kid. 

Her affection has blossomed too. She snuggles, and sleeps in my lap. She is fine with dry pets now, not only being given affection while having her face washed in the shower anymore. She likes to sit in my lap, put one foot in my hand, exactly as though we are holding hands, then she will nestle down into the cup of my hand and chill. She enjoys TV, or Chess, and plays with Go stones a bit, and she is not afraid to help herself to any snacks that happen to be out. In the shower she baths herself in her bath right next to me, and chats away heartily, and singing a wide array of calls, and dancing a bit. Her array of songs is amazing, and from time to time she does a call which I have not heard in months. More and more, she asks for affection time together out in the living room, though. She does this by tearing away at her perch cover, pecking it, pulling it, tugging away at it, and leaping back and forth while elevating her chest, which is clearly the bird version if waving one's arms. That means, Hey, someone come and get me! She won't usually vocalize a desire for affection. I wonder if that is because there is no Crow vocalization for Hey, come cuddle me? She will vocalize annoyance or irritation however, if ignored. This gestural communication seems somewhat universal to animals including humans when we are at a lack for words. Dogs and cats do the same, as will parrots, hamsters, or even fish pacing back and forth to indicate uncontrolled anticipation. 

Fig has become much more forgiving, too. For example, from time to time, I trim and file her eight toenails down because she cannot have natural wood perches. This makes it easier for her to jump about on fabric covered perches without accidentally snagging a foot, or toe and breaking a leg or a wing. Fig is not a big fan of this maintenance. If I am not careful, I can really upset her. But she forgets all about it once the deed is done, and she returns to her usual trusting, affectionate self. There are no longer two weeks of grudge, resentment, and anxiety over a bit of what amounts to a seriously gentle manhandling. More like two minutes, if that. Oh, she will growl, and maybe bite, or peck if she thinks I want to start all over again  but once I tell her, don't fret,  it is done, she goes right back to being a lovey dovey, fluffing up in relief. 

All this progress is fantastic to witness. Fig is finally settled in. She just needs a bit more confidence before she'll have achieved full autonomy as a mobile member of the family with run of the house.  One must be very aware and careful as a hot stove, mirror, and windows present a constant danger. It is very important to teach a bird about hot places, mirrors, and windows. I have even learned that screendoors cannot always be seen, and after many years of being a bird person, I did not know that.

. 

Thoughts on (Human) Learning

It occurs to me, that so many things we know, and do are the result of serendipity.
I mean agriculture, wine, yogurt, leavened bread, penicillin, etc...

And you can add learning to that list. Because playing around in hopes of discovering something useful, is indeed something we discovered serendipitously. Yet, it is astonishing, knowing this especially, how unplayful learning in school is still, these days.

When I watch the wild Crows, I wonder sometimes if they are doing something which they learned, by accident, or by direct instruction from other Crows.

I think, if you are a Crow watcher, this is a very important question to keep warm on the back burner.
1. What are they doing?
2. Is this a repeat? If so, is it a repeat because they learned from an accident, or instruction?

For example, when Crows toss fruits down from the tree, are they cultivating or agriculturing?
Have they learned that bugs, and maggots will infest the fruits on the ground? That fruits will later ripen or ferment on the ground? That other animals will come like pigeons or mice? That new fruit will sprout forth upon the tree again? That it is a form of hoarding/caching? That they can later collect and hide the fruit without competition present? That competition will leave town if they find bare trees?

What exactly motivates their annual behaviors? Have they learned it? Learned from it? Been taught it? Taught it to others? How do their observations and experiences guide their behavior?

These are questions we should ask of ourselves as well. These are questions we should teach our children to ask. Why? Because there are so many things we don't know yet, and cannot appreciate until we hurry up and get to knowing them.

Do Crows do family planning?
Socializing?
Agriculture?
Hunting?
Gathering?
Playing?
Cooperation?
Teamwork?

Yes! But how much of that was learnt from observation? How much taught?

On the flip side...what ain't they managed to learn, or learn quickly, or learn well? And why?
This is a good one to answer about ourselves.

Quick Update on Fig

Ah the world of Fig is an interesting one. Let's see...real quick entry. Riiiiiiiight.

Fig's Mom is a regular visitor now. She visits every morning and throughout the day. She ate a hole in the roof on Fig's balcony and brought Fig some food presents, which she leave on the roof, rather than putting them into the hole she made.. Fig is awful lazy in the morning as I have her on our family bedtime, and she prefers to sleep in her warm, insulated, dark, sound insulated sleeper box until 10-11am, sometimes later. When the mother visits in the morning Fig will answer her calls very loudly from inside the box without bothering to emerge, lazy thing. Anyway, she is better off on our schedule as she gets a lot more social interaction time than when I was putting her to bed shortly after sundown and waking up at 7am. As long as she can sleep well for a solid 12 hours per night then she is fit as a fiddle. For a while there, I thought Fig's parents were working on a rescue plan, but I think local food is plentiful in this season, and their other kids are off socializing so Fig is just nice for them to have around to chat with, especially for her mother it seems. I have never given them food, and Fig cannot have physical contact with them, but they certainly maintain close social ties, and communicate daily which is very nice for lonely Figgy who picks up new seasonal vocabulary which she then tries to teach to me.

Fig is very affectionate now. She not only sings to me, but dances too, wiggling her tail wildly, raising her "arms", fluffying up, sticking out her neck, blinking wildly, and a whole assortment of calls, noises, mimicks, growls, gurgles and the such. She and I will play growl right in each others faces and I am sure if any other person on earth were to experience this it would frighten them rather well. Fig is not afraid to voice a disagreement about anything and she can growl like a Tiger if she wants to; it is impressive, but she means to do absolutely no harm; she is as gentle as a lamb, and sweet as candy. She always says thank you, and I love you, and gushes gratitude never ending. I gave her mealworms with a bit of cheese tonight, which she had not had in a few days, and she just went made lovey gushing appreciation.

She does not hate the cat, but she cannot overcome her fear of the cat. She has become a great lap Crow now in spite of the cat, however. She sits on my knee for 30 minutes enjoying TV, a game of chess, or classical music before she requests a bathroom break. Generally her behavior at home, and at the park continues to just get better and better. I am very proud of her. Crows are afraid of everything, and anything but Fig has learned to trust me very deeply, even when confronting a serious fear. The other day, a new robe which she had never seen was hanging up in the bathroom. She was on my shoulder, and the anxiety about it boiled over and she flew off and had a major run all over the house...that is how Crows are, anxiety builds until a breaking point at which point they take flight. Anyway, she ran all over the house, a real full tour (you know, she milks it, she really, really milks it) leaping over the cat a few times in route, but very dutifully not pooping anywhere as she knows that's a nono, eventually bounding back to me, to confront the new robe again having dispelled a bit of anxiety. Once I let her peck it a few times, it faded into the wallpaper. We go through this routine with anything new, or out of place, be it a sock, one of her own feathers (especially feathers are to be feared or worried over), or anything too close to her space. She will make a big racket about anything suspicious until I either reassure, reeducate, or shoosh her, which I seldom do as it is far more interesting to have a conversation with the phobic anxiety case so I can figure out exactly what's got her anxious. She certainly has an eye for minute detail, and naturally plays a game of Spot the Difference in her environment.

Fig's daily need to vent is incredible, and seems to get a few seconds longer every day. She'll go on for ten minutes sometimes. She needs to tell me what is on her mind a couple of times a day minimum. This means she talks, and I just listen, and pretend to understand everything. When she is satisfied, she fluffs up, and quiets down. This is a vitally important routine to maintain her mental health. I sort of understand the topic, or the gist of her utterances, but I'm lost on the details. It's generally something along the lines of:  I talked to my Mom today in the morning did you see her? Man, am I in a super mood,  I slept fairly well, but did you hear that motorcycle last night? Heck of loud or what! Today's food was pretty good. I'm not complaining, but you forgot to give me some peanut butter. You know that, right? It was damn hot this afternoon, huh? Why were you five minutes late getting home by the way? You didn't forget me right? God damn it I love you, have you got any roast beef in the fridge? All done, fluff, preen.

So Fig is doing super. Healthy, clean, happy, well loved, played with, and socialized. Bless her little heart, she's a dear sweet birdie.

The mealworm farm is a success, but I need to upscale. A crow can eat a lot of mealworms, and the buggers grow very slowly. I want to do a series of serious intelligence experiments with Fig, but I have had to postpone all until next year when the mealworms are in better supply. Too pricey to buy. Hopefully I will have 50 beetles to lay eggs soon if winter doesn't kill them all first. And to think I started with only 9.

Well...more later?
1. How do we play together?
2. What am I training her to do?
3. Where did I get with APHIS/USDA, F&W, F&G, in regards to a possession permit? Nowhere. There is a ban on imports of any and all wild birds from Japan right now. I want to write in depth about this. Alas, life illegal goes on... I am very dismayed about the fact that I can go on line with a credit card and buy a permit to kill, or maim just about any living creature, but the minute I want to care for one, and show it love, and compassion, and some quality of life, then I'm an instant outlaw. I truly cannot get the world sometimes, especially the inanity resulting from bureaucrazy. Who wants to live in a world where it is a crime to seek out understanding,  to empathize, or exhibit compassion? It ought to be illegal not to do those things.