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A crow was photographed soaking in an "ant bath". A bizarre sight was captured in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The picture shows a crow sitting in a relaxed state

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A crow was photographed soaking in an "ant bath".

A bizarre sight was captured in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

The picture shows a crow sitting in a relaxed state.

However, if you look closely, you can see countless ants crawling all over the crow's body.

What the hell are crows doing?

An "ant bath" to clean the body?

The photo was taken by photographer Tony Austin, who lives in the country.

At the time, Austin was visiting nature at Victoria's Swan Lake Nature Reserve.

Three hours passed, without any gain, and just as he was about to return to the car, several crows flew to the gravel road about ten meters ahead.

Soon, one of them began to behave strangely.

The crow spread its wings loosely over the ant's path and began to crawl all over its body.

Austin said, "At first I thought it had accidentally landed on ant road, but the crow seemed relaxed and not particularly depressed.

In addition, the friends around me also watched this scene with calm eyes.

"When a companion has an accident, the clever crow is usually fussy and upset."

To demystify the behavior, Austin posted the photo to Perfect Vancouver Island, a Facebook community of local wildlife photographers.

It turned out that this is a behavior unique to birds called "ant bathing".

Ant bathing, the behavior of birds rubbing insects (mainly ants) against their bodies, was first reported in 1935 by German ornithologist Erwin Stresemann.

However, while the observational records are old, the purpose of the ant bath is not fully elucidated.

A popular theory is to keep the body clean. #I do popular science ##所见所得 in headlines, and I am very scientific ##知识 #

A crow was photographed soaking in an "ant bath". A bizarre sight was captured in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The picture shows a crow sitting in a relaxed state
A crow was photographed soaking in an "ant bath". A bizarre sight was captured in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The picture shows a crow sitting in a relaxed state
A crow was photographed soaking in an "ant bath". A bizarre sight was captured in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The picture shows a crow sitting in a relaxed state
A crow was photographed soaking in an "ant bath". A bizarre sight was captured in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The picture shows a crow sitting in a relaxed state

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