Birds are smarter than these scientists thought they were
A scientist from Japan wore a bird mask for a year and wasn't able to get the research he wanted...
People are known for doing some eccentric things to fulfil a need or desire. Sometimes it is led by the means to want to learn more, other times it is led by a fascination.
But whatever the reason, it can sometimes seem weird or extreme.
Like the Japanese man who paid over R200,000 to create a dog suit so he could fulfil his life-long dream of being an animal.
Even for people who are believed to be focused on research, like scientists, it can still get a bit over-the-top.
"A Japanese scientist studying the languages of birds wore a giant bird mask on his head for an entire year in order to trick a nest of great tits to allow him to approach them." (Oddity Central)
Of course, the question as to whether it worked or not will determine the extent of the loopiness of this situation.
The Japanese scientist was interested in researching the birds chirping, however, it seemed that birds were prone to recognise human faces which prompted them to stop their usual chirping.
Hence the scientist decided to trick them into believing he was a bird. We are on the fence with that kind of logic.
Especially because we think we should give birds more credit...
Check out the mask he wore and perhaps you will understand where we are coming from.
The photo was posted to Twitter/X by a fellow professor of the scientist, Toshitaka Suzuki.
一昨年から一緒に研究している研究員。シジュウカラに警戒されないよう配慮した結果こうなった（意味はなかった） pic.twitter.com/yiOBX1JZmL
— 鈴木俊貴 Toshitaka Suzuki (@toshitaka_szk) August 22, 2023
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Sadly for him, his time was wasted as he did not succeed in learning anything from their language.
It seems they are smarter than he gave them credit them for.
"According to Prof. Suzuki, his colleague wore the disguise for an entire year, but his experiment ended in failure. Whenever the great tits noticed him approaching, they started emitting their warning calls. The result was exactly the same when the man finally took out the headgear and tried getting closer to the nest." (Oddity Central)
Perhaps if he wore something more realistic or used a drone disguised as a bird?
Image Courtesy of Twitter/X