Mimicry — It’s Not a Laughing Matter
I heard the funniest birding story of my life this evening, especially if you can laugh at blind people getting put at risk of getting run over.
At my university, Angelo State, we have a cross walk that emits a loud shrill repetitive tone when it’s safe to walk across a busy street. The nose sounds very similar to a bird call, and in fact, my very week on campus, I was headed to class and stopped in my tracks when I heard it. You see, I thought it was a bird, and I didn’t know what it was. It’s very rare when I don’t recognize a bird by sound, and it either means it’s rare or that I get to learn something — either one is fun.
I never knew what that noise was for, until talking to a friend tonight. It allows blind students to know when it’s safe to cross the street, and there are probably around a dozen or so that make use of it.
What a great system, right? Well it was, until a Northern Mockingbird learned how to perfectly mimic the tone. Apparently, the bird did such a good job that people couldn’t tell the difference between the light and the bird.
Something had to be done. Some folks in the biology department used a net to catch the bird and relocate it. And fortunately (for mankind and the bird), it didn’t come back.
I’ve heard of mockingbirds mimicking an incredible range of noises. In fact, I just posted about their mimicry of prairie dogs this weekend. But I’ve never heard of a mockingbird that risked killing people.
We have the same audio system out here for the crosswalks, and while we have N. Mockingbirds (a plenty), it is actually the stupid starlings that will mimic the sound. They even sit on the lights or on the sidewalk next to it and make the sound…little buggers. Other people, not just the deaf, have become used to associating the sound with the ability to cross the street…it is kind of funny to see how confused those people can get when they hear the sound, but see no flashing light and still have cars going.
Now the N. Mockingbirds here have managed to mimic cell phone rings. I have seen this happen a hand full of times..but a groups of students will be walking to and from class and just so happen to walk beneath a perched mockingbird, when all of the sudden you hear a cell phone ring…it is really funny to see how many of the students check their phones, all the while it was the bird sitting in the tree to the side of them.