What started out as a friendship, ended in a lawsuit.
Remember when as kids we imagined befriending yard animals like squirrels and various types of birds?
A young girl in Seattle had this type of relationship with her neighborhood birds. And after reaching international attention, the family found themselves facing a lawsuit.
Gabi Mann was featured on BBC back then because of her affinity for crows.
According to BBC’s feature on Mann, the little girl proudly shows her collection of trinkets arranged neatly in a divided storage container.
She would warn people sternly not to touch the trinkets but they can look at them as much as they please. These things weren’t purchased, however.
The tiny trinkets that ranged from beads and discarded bracelets were gifts.
And who would gift her these things, you say? The crows. Mann started this friendship with neighborhood crows back in 2011.
It was an accident at first because as a young child, she was a bit clumsy. Food would fall from her lap and the crows would swoop in for the prize.
When she realized she and the murder of crows were acknowledging each other’s existence, she began feeding them on purpose by sharing her lunch with them.
The crows soon congregated around their home.
Taking care of these birds became a habit for her and her family. Each day, they will refill the birdbath with water and line the bird feeders with peanuts.
Soon enough, the gifts followed. Feeders would be left empty except for small shiny trinkets. They think they were intended as gifts so Mann decided to keep them.
Crows are considered one of the smartest species on earth.
Besides their uncanny ability to remember faces and dangerous places, they are also keen problem-solvers. They are also believed to be “self-conscious”.
They even use tools or their environment to help them with their tasks.
Crows are even believed to drop nuts on the road so that cars would crack them open.
With this level of intelligence, it is not surprising that these birds form specific relationships with humans, ranging from mutual, communal, or even parasitic.
And while the story is a fairytale coming alive, not everyone is happy.
Some of their neighbors think that this habit is becoming disruptive. Matt Ashbach and Christine Yokan claimed that their actions have “caused unusually high numbers of wild animals, particularly crows, pigeons, and rats to congregate” in their area.
The complainants said that it affected the ways they used their properties. They even went far as saying they’d never seen a rat on their properties until the Manns began feeding the birds.
The lawsuit has been settled but the details are kept under wraps.
The family agreed to restrict feeding the birds and other wildlife for eight years. They are allowed to leave 4 ounces of food for the birds every day. They are also restricted when it comes to scaring away natural predators of crows.
They also paid a sum of money for damages but the specifics for how much and why were left out.
Watch how a little girl befriended the crows in her neighborhood.
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