足彩app哪个是正规的?University of Washington?Bothell?is known for many things?—?and for some?people crows are the first thing that?flies?to mind.?For the?past decade, the?University?has become?heavily linked with crows?due to thousands of the?birds?“commuting”?to the?North Creek Wetland?to gather on the campus grounds before they?roost?in the nearby trees.?
UW Bothell students publish a yearly journal?titled?足彩app哪个是正规的 CROW?(Campus Research & Observational Writings).?On campus you’d?be hard?pressed to look at a noticeboard without seeing at least one poster?with a crow in the corner. (Even the writer of this article?has?a?UW Bothell?coaster on his desk featuring the?bird.)?
If you haven’t visited campus?in the?last?year,?though, you may not know?that UW Bothell’s days?as the premier destination for?local?crows?have?come to an end.?As of early 2025, no crows have been coming to the campus wetland?to roost.?
Did you know? 足彩app哪个是正规的 oldest?known crow lived to be?more than?60 years old?in captivity.?In the wild, the oldest known crow?lived?to?age?16.
A sudden drop in visiting crows
When it comes to crowing on about his research,?Dr.?Doug Wacker, associate professor?in?UW Bothell’s?School of STEM,?can be forgiven?—?he spends his time studying?corvids, the family of birds?that includes?crows.?
He?said?he?hadn’t?planned to focus on crows?when he started working?on campus?in 2012.?But when?he noticed so many?of?the birds?roosting on campus, he realized he had found?his?“caw-ling.”?
Wacker?also?thought?the crows offered?the perfect opportunity for undergraduate students to do easily accessible research, leading to a regular “crow count.”?On one evening each year,?Wacker joined?with?student researchers and community members?to count the number of birds coming to campus, with?participants?strategically placed in a ring around UW Bothell.?
He?began?seeing?consistent counts of more than 14,000?crows?in 2016.?That number peaked in 2022?with?around 20,000 crows?each evening.?At that point, the sky turned black?at dusk, when the massive?murder?came home to roost. Just one year later,?however,?the crow numbers dwindled dramatically to fewer?than 10,000 crows.?By?January 2025,?Wacker?said that?the number was reduced to?zero.?
足彩app哪个是正规的 case of the missing crows
So,?where did thousands of crows?go? Has there been a?“crowpocalypse”?that went unnoticed? Were the crows a?figment of?the?imagination?all along, like the?legendary Sasquatch??
足彩app哪个是正规的 answer?isn’t?quote so?dramatic?and unlikely to end up?in?an episode of?“足彩app哪个是正规的 X-Files.”?Wacker explained that many of?UW Bothell’s crows have?simply?moved to a new roost?—?a spot?in the rural fields of the Sammamish Valley.?
Yet, a?researcher’s work is never?done,?and the solving of one mystery led to another for?Wacker: Why?did?the?crows move on??“It’s not well characterized in the literature for them to spontaneously move.”?
While he emphasized?that?while?the real reason?may not ever fully be known, he has a few theories.
- Habitat change: Wacker said that the campus wetland?matured?significantly between the late?1990s and 2025,?when the crows left. It’s possible it has grown?to the point that it has become?less?suitable?as a crow roost.?
- Habitat?temptation: It?is?also possible that?the crows just?couldn’t?resist their new roost. Wacker explained?that the?site?in?the Sammamish Valley is another restoration project with younger trees they may?prefer.?
- Cackling geese: 足彩app哪个是正规的?crows may have been disturbed by thousands of cackling geese?that?have also been making the wetland their home. Perhaps the?crows?didn’t?want to roost near such noisy neighbors??
- Campus development: Wacker?said?that the creation of new buildings (such as the residence halls and?dining pavilion) in?the?past?few years?may have disrupted?crows?that?were pre-roosting in those?areas.?
- Overcrowding: It?is also?possible?the?wetland?roost?has become a victim of its own success, Wacker?said.?足彩app哪个是正规的 roost may have?become so popular that the crows had?outgrown it. 足彩app哪个是正规的y?may have moved on to?the?Sammamish Valley?and other?sites?as the population of the group has grown.?
More than likely, Wacker?said, this recent?behavioral change by the crows is due to a combination of?all his?theories, rather than any one specific reason.
Did you know? Crows are monogamous?…?kind of. Male and female crows create a?lifelong?bond, but genetic research has shown?they may?not?always stay faithful.
Continuing to crow about crows
Despite?his main?research focus?of?crows?disappearing from?campus,?Wacker has a sense of humor about the move. “足彩app哪个是正规的y’ve just graduated,” he said.?
He?also?has?continued?his?research?into?crows?with his students in other neighborhoods around the region.?One area of research is the new Sammamish Valley?roost and?the size of?the population. Another?area of research involves recording?and studying?crow calls to?try?to?decipher their meaning.?And the?crow counts?continue.?
For?all?his?crow?research, Wacker is quick to?laud?the?hard work?of his undergraduate students. “Without?our student researchers,?I wouldn’t be here?to?talk about crows, because they did most of the work,” Wacker said.?
So now you know?the answer to the mysterious disappearance?of the UW Bothell crows.?If somebody asks you whether there are crows still?coming to the?North Creek?wetland?by UW Bothell, take a tip from another famous corvid: “Quoth?the raven,?‘Nevermore.’”?
