What crows teach us about death | Kaeli Swift

Translator: Nathaniel Luis Reyhan Soesilo Reviewer: Yolanda Raintina

Whether we want to or not, humans spend a great deal of time

Entah kita menginginkannya atau tidak, manusia sering memikirkan kematian.

considering death.

And it's possible we've been doing so since shortly after homo sapiens

Mungkin, kita telah melakukannya sejak Homo sapiens menjelajahi daratan.

first began roaming the landscape.

After all, the first intentional human burial

Lagi pula, penguburan manusia intensional pertama

is thought to have occurred around 100,000 years ago.

diperkirakan sekitar 100.000 tahun silam.

What might those early people have been thinking

Apa yang dipikirkan oleh mereka saat menggali tanah,

as they took the time to dig into the earth,

deposit the body

menaruh mayatnya, dan menguburnya?

and carefully cover it up again?

Were they trying to protect it from scavengers

Apa mereka ingin melindunginya dari pemakan bangkai

or stymie the spread of disease?

atau menghambat penyebaran penyakit?

Were they trying to honor the deceased?

Apa mereka ingin menghormati yang sudah meninggal?

Or did they just not want to have to look at a dead body?

Atau apa mereka hanya tidak ingin melihat mayat?

Without the advent of a time machine,

Tanpa adanya mesin waktu,

we may never know for sure what those early people were thinking,

kita tidak akan tahu dengan pasti pikiran orang-orang tersebut,

but one thing we do know is that humans are far from alone

tapi satu hal yang kita tahu,

yaitu manusia tidak sendirian dalam memperhatikan kematian.

in our attention towards the dead.

Like people, some animals,

Seperti manusia, beberapa hewan,

including the corvids, the family of birds

termasuk corvid, famili dari burung gagak, magpie dan jay,

that houses the crows, ravens, magpies and jays,

also seem to pay special attention to their dead.

juga memperhatikan secara khusus mayat sesamanya.

In fact, the rituals of corvids may have acted as the inspiration

Bahkan, ritual corvid mungkin telah menjadi inspirasi kita.

for our own.

After all, it was the raven that God sent down

Lagi pula, burung gagaklah yang dikirim Tuhan

to teach Cain how to bury his slain brother Abel.

untuk mengajari Kain cara mengubur kakaknya, Habel.

But despite this clear recognition by early people that other animals

Meskipun orang-orang dulu tahu bahwa hewan lain memperhatikan kematian,

attend to their dead,

it's only fairly recently that science has really turned its attention

namun belakangan ini sains memperhatikan fenomena ini.

towards this phenomenon.

In fact, a formal name for this field -- comparative thanatology --

Bahkan, nama resmi bidang ini -- thanatologi komparatif --

wasn't first introduced until 2016.

baru diperkenalkan pada tahun 2016.

In this growing field, we are beginning to appreciate what a rich place

Di bidang yang bertumbuh ini, kita mulai menghargai kekayaan alam,

the natural world is with respect to how other animals interact with their dead,

terutama dalam interaksi hewan dengan sesamanya yang mati,

and it's in this growing body of knowledge

dan dengan ilmu ini, kita bisa memahami pikiran leluhur kita.

that that time machine to our early ancestors might be possible.

So what are we learning in this growing field?

Jadi, apa yang kami pelajari di bidang ini?

Well, right now we can split our understanding into two main groups.

Saat ini, pemahamannya bisa dibagi menjadi dua kelompok utama.

In the first, we have animals that display stereotyped, predictable behaviors

Pertama, ada hewan yang perilaku kematiannya mudah ditebak,

towards their dead,

dan sebagian besar pemahaman kami berasal dari studi eksperimental.

and for whom much of what we understand about them

comes from experimental studies.

This group includes things like the social insects --

Kelompok ini termasuk serangga sosial --

bees and ants and termites --

lebah, semut, rayap --

and for all of these animals, colony hygiene is of critical importance,

dan bagi semua hewan ini, kebersihan koloni sangatlah penting.

and so as a result these animals display rigorous undertaking behaviors

Maka, hewan tersebut sangat teliti dalam merespons mayat.

in response to corpses.

For example, they may physically remove carcasses from the colony.

Misalnya, mereka menyingkirkan mayatnya dari koloni.

They may consume them.

Mungkin dengan memakannya.

They may even construct tombs.

Bahkan mungkin membangun makam.

We see similar hygiene-driven responses in some colony-living mammals.

Kami melihat respons kebersihan yang mirip di beberapa mamalia koloni.

Rats, for example, will reliably bury cage-mates

Tikus akan mengubur teman sekandangnya yang telah mati selama 48 jam.

that have been dead for 48 hours.

In our other group, we have animals that display more variable,

Di kelompok lain, ada hewan yang perilakunya lebih bervariasi,

perhaps more charismatic behaviors,

mungkin lebih karismatik,

and for whom much of what we understand about them

dan sebagian besar pemahaman kami berasal dari anekdot

comes from anecdotes

by scientists or other observers.

dari ilmuwan atau pengamat lain.

This is the animals whose death behaviors

Saya kira perilaku kematian hewan ini lebih mirip dengan manusia.

I suspect might be more familiar to folks.

It includes organisms like elephants,

Termasuk organisme seperti gajah,

which are well-known for their attendance to their dead,

yang terkenal atas perhatiannya kepada gajah mati,

even in popular culture.

bahkan dalam budaya populer.

In fact, they're even known to be attracted

Faktanya, mereka bahkan tertarik pada tulang gajah mati.

to the bones of their deceased.

It also includes animals like primates,

Berlaku juga pada primata,

which display a wide variety of behaviors around their dead,

yang memiliki berbagai macam perilaku kematian,

from grooming them

dari merawat mereka,

to prolonged attention towards them,

hingga terus memperhatikan mereka,

guarding them,

menjaga mereka,

even the transportation of dead infants.

bahkan memindahkan bayi yang mati.

And that's actually a behavior we've seen in a number of animals,

Itu sebenarnya sebuah perilaku yang sering dijumpai,

like the dolphins for example.

contohnya adalah lumba-lumba.

You may remember the story of Tahlequah,

Anda mungkin ingat cerita Tahlequah,

the orca in the resident J pod in the Puget Sound,

paus orca dalam residen J pod di Puget Sound,

who during the summer of 2018

yang selama musim panas 2018, membawa anaknya yang mati selama 17 hari.

carried her dead calf

for an unprecedented 17 days.

Now, a story like that

Cerita seperti ini menyedihkan dan memesona,

is both heartbreaking and fascinating,

but it offers far more questions than it does answers.

tapi membawa lebih banyak pertanyaan daripada jawaban.

For example, why did Tahlequah carry her calf

Contohnya,

mengapa Tahlequah membawa anaknya selama itu?

for such a long period of time?

Was she just that stricken with grief?

Apakah dia dilanda duka?

Was she more confused by her unresponsive infant?

Apakah dia bingung dengan anaknya yang tidak responsif?

Or is this behavior just less rare in orcas

Ataukah perilaku ini memang jarang di orca daripada pemahaman kita saat ini?

than we currently understand it to be?

But for a variety of reasons,

Tapi, untuk banyak alasan,

it's difficult to do the kinds of experimental studies

sangat sulit bagi kami untuk bereksperimen dengan orca atau mamalia besar lainnya

in an animal like an orca, or many of these other large mammals,

that might elucidate those kinds of questions.

yang bisa menjawab pertanyaan seperti itu.

So instead, science is turning to an animal whose behaviors around death

Jadi, sains beralih kepada hewan yang perilaku kematiannya

we've been thinking about since BCE:

sudah kita ketahui sejak lama:

the crows.

burung gagak.

Seperti serangga dan primata, gagak juga memperhatikan sesama yang mati.

Like insects and primates,

crows also seem to pay special attention to their dead.

Typically, this manifests as the discovering bird alarm calling,

Umumnya, ini terlihat saat burung penemu memanggil,

like you can see in this photo,

seperti di foto ini,

followed by the recruitment of other birds to the area

lalu tempat itu didatangi oleh burung lain dan membentuk massa.

to form what we call a mob.

But it can be a little different than that too.

Tapi, kenyataannya bisa berbeda dari ini.

For example, I've had people share with me seeing prolonged silent vigils by crows

Beberapa orang melihat gagak yang menjaga gagak mati atau sekarat dalam waktu lama.

in response to deceased or dying crows.

I've even had people tell me of witnessing crows place objects

Beberapa orang melihat bahwa gagak menaruh objek,

like sticks and candy wrappers on or near the bodies of dead crows.

seperti tongkat dan pembungkus permen di atas atau dekat mayat sesamanya.

And this mix of observations puts these birds

Campuran pengamatan gagak ini

in a really important place in our scheme,

menjadi skema penting bagi kami karena kemiripannya dengan serangga,

because it suggests on the one hand they might be like the insects,

displaying these very predictable behaviors,

menunjukkan perilaku yang mudah ditebak.

but on the other hand we have this handful of observations

Tapi di sisi lain, ada banyak pengamatan yang lebih sulit dijelaskan

that are more difficult to explain and feel a bit more like what we see

dan lebih mirip dengan mamalia, seperti primata dan gajah.

in some of the mammals like primates and elephants.

And like those animals, crows share an extremely large relative brain size

Seperti hewan ini, gagak punya ukuran otak yang relatif besar,

and the kinds of dynamic social lives that might invite more complexity

dan punya kehidupan sosial dinamis yang membawa kerumitan

in how they respond to their dead.

dalam merespons kematian.

So I wanted to try to understand what was going on

Jadi, saya ingin memahami kejadian saat gagak menemukan sesamanya yang mati,

when crows encounter a dead crow,

and what this might teach us about the role of death in their world,

dan mengajarkan kita tentang peran kematian dalam dunia gagak,

and possibly the worlds of other animals as well,

dan mungkin juga dalam dunia hewan lain, bahkan juga leluhur kita.

even those early versions of ourselves.

There's a number of different ways that we could explain

Ada banyak cara untuk menjelaskan

why crows might be attracted to their dead.

mengapa gagak tertarik pada sesamanya yang mati.

For example, maybe it's a social opportunity,

Contohnya, mungkin itu sebuah peluang sosial,

a way for them to explore why that individual died,

sebuah cara untuk mengetahui mengapa individu itu mati,

who they were

siapakah mereka dan dampak terhadap lingkungan ke depannya.

and what impact this is going to have on the neighborhood moving forward.

Maybe it's an expression of grief,

Mungkin itu sebuah ekspresi duka,

like our own contemporary funerals.

seperti pemakaman modern kita.

Or maybe it's a way that they learn about danger in their environment.

Atau mungkin itu cara untuk mempelajari bahaya di lingkungannya.

While all of those explanations are worth pursuing,

Meskipun semua penjelasan ini layak untuk diketahui,

and certainly not mutually exclusive,

dan tentunya tidak saling eksklusif,

they're not all testable scientific questions.

tidak semua pertanyaan ilmiah itu dapat diuji,

But that idea that dead crows might act as cues of danger, that is.

kecuali ide gagak mati bisa menjadi pertanda bahaya.

So as a graduate student, I wanted to explore that question,

Sebagai mahasiswa pascasarjana, saya ingin mendalami pertanyaan itu,

particularly with respect to two ideas.

lebih tepatnya, dengan mengacu kepada dua ide.

The first was whether they might be able to learn new predators,

Pertama, bisakah mereka mempelajari predator baru, terutama manusia,

specifically people,

based on their association with dead crows.

berdasarkan asosiasinya dengan gagak mati.

And the second was if they might learn places

Kedua, bisakah mereka mempelajari tempat-tempat

associated with where they find crow bodies.

yang berkaitan dengan penemuan mayat gagak.

So to do this, I would go out into some unsuspecting Seattle neighborhood

Untuk melakukan ini, saya pergi ke lingkungan Seattle

and I would start to feed a breeding pair of crows

dan memberi makan sepasang gagak selama tiga hari,

over the course of three days,

and this provided a baseline

dan ini menjadi tolok ukur kecepatan gagak menghampiri makanan;

for how quickly the crows would come down to a food pile,

which, as you'll see in a minute, was really important.

sebentar lagi, Anda akan lihat mengapa ini penting.

Then, on the fourth day,

Lalu, di hari keempat,

we would have our funeral.

kami mengadakan pemakaman.

This is Linda.

Ini Linda.

Linda is one of seven masks whose job was to stand there for 30 minutes

Dia adalah satu dari tujuh orang bertopeng yang berdiri di sana selama 30 menit

with her little hors d'oeuvre plate of dead crow

dengan piring kecilnya yang berisi gagak mati,

while I documented what happened.

sementara saya mendokumentasikan kejadiannya.

Most importantly, though,

Hal yang paling penting

her job was to come back after a week,

seminggu kemudian dia kembali tanpa membawa gagak mati,

now without the dead crow,

so that we could see if the birds would treat her just like any old pedestrian,

untuk melihat apakah burungnya akan menganggapnya seperti orang biasa,

or if, instead, they would exhibit behaviors like alarm calling

atau akan menunjukkan perilaku seperti panggilan alarm

or dive bombing

atau terjun menyerang

that would indicate that they perceived her as a predator.

karena mereka menganggapnya sebagai predator.

Now, given that we already knew crows were capable of learning

Setelah mengetahui kemampuan gagak dalam mengenali wajah manusia,

and recognizing human faces,

kami tidak heran jika kebanyakan gagak

it may come as no surprise that the majority of crows in our study

menganggap topeng pemegang gagak mati sebagai ancaman

did treat the masks that they saw handling dead crows as threats

when they saw them over the course of the next six weeks.

ketika mereka melihatnya dalam enam minggu ke depan.

Now, if you're sitting there thinking,

Jika dipikir-pikir lagi, sebentar, tunggu,

alright, give me a break,

look at that face, it is terrifying,

lihat wajah itu, menakutkan sekali, siapa pun akan menganggapnya ancaman

anyone would treat that as a threat

if they saw it walking down the street,

ketika melihat dia berjalan, ketahuilah bahwa Anda tidak sendirian.

know that you are not alone.

As it turns out, a lot of the folks

Ternyata, kebanyakan orang yang depan rumahnya kami pakai bereksperimen

whose houses we did these experiments in front of

juga merasakan hal sama,

felt the same way,

but we'll save that for another time.

tapi kita tidak akan membahasnya.

So you may be comforted to know that we did control tests

Jadi, Anda mungkin lega karena kami melakukan tes kontrol

to make sure that crows don't share our preconceived bias against masks

untuk memastikan bahwa gagak tidak takut terhadap topeng

that look a bit like the female version of Hannibal Lecter.

yang terlihat seperti versi perempuan dari Hannibal Lecter.

Now, in addition to finding that crows were able to make associations with people

Setelah kami tahu perilaku gagak terhadap perlakuan orang pada mayat gagak,

based on their handling of dead crows,

we also found that in the days following these funeral events,

kami juga menemukan bahwa beberapa hari setelah kematian,

as we continued to feed them,

saat kami terus memberinya makan,

that their willingness to come down to the food pile significantly diminished,

jumlah gagak yang menghampiri tumpukan makanan menurun drastis,

and we didn't see that same kind of decline in our control groups.

dan kami tidak menemukan penurunan ini di grup kontrol kami.

So that suggests that, yes, crows can make associations

Jadi, itu menunjukkan bahwa gagak memiliki kaitan

with particular places where they've seen dead crows.

dengan tempat kematian gagak lain.

So together, what that tells us is that

Jadi, itu menunjukkan bahwa --

while we certainly shouldn't discount those other explanations,

tanpa mengabaikan penjelasan lainnya, kami cukup yakin mengatakan

we can feel pretty confident in saying

that for crows, attention to their dead

bahwa perhatian gagak kepada sesamanya yang mati

might be a really important way

adalah cara penting untuk mempelajari tentang bahaya.

that these animals learn about danger.

And that's a nice, tidy little narrative

Dan itu sebuah narasi kecil yang rapi untuk diandalkan.

on which to hang our hats.

But in life and death,

Tapi, kehidupan dan kematian jarang begitu rapi,

things are rarely so neat,

and I really came face to face with that in a follow-up experiment,

dan saya mengetahuinya dalam sebuah eksperimen lanjutan,

where we were looking at how crows respond to dead crows

saat kami melihat cara gagak merespons mayat sesamanya

in the absence of any kind of predator.

tanpa adanya predator.

And suffice it to say, we found that in these cases,

Kami menemukan bahwa ritual kematiannya menjadi lebih aneh.

the wakes can get a little more weird.

So this is what that experimental setup looks like.

Jadi, inilah susunan eksperimennya.

You can see our stuffed dead crow alone on the sidewalk,

Anda lihat gagak mati palsu kami di pinggir jalan,

and it's been placed on the territory of a pair.

dan ini diletakkan di wilayah sepasang gagak.

(Squawk)

(Gagak berkoak)

That is the alarm call by one of those territorial birds,

Itu adalah panggilan alarm

dari salah satu burung yang sedang mendatanginya.

and it's coming into frame.

Pretty soon, its mate is going to join it.

Sebentar lagi, temannya akan bergabung.

And so far, this is all very usual.

Sejauh ini, masih terlihat wajar.

This is what crows do.

Inilah perilaku gagak.

OK, right now it's getting a little less usual.

Oke, sekarang mulai tidak wajar.

Not everyone here might be familiar with what bird sex looks like,

Tidak semua orang di sini tahu seks burung itu seperti apa,

so if you are not, this is what it looks like.

jika Anda tidak tahu, seperti inilah kelihatannya.

You're basically seeing a confluence of three behaviors:

Pada dasarnya Anda melihat gabungan tiga perilaku:

alarm, as indicated by the alarm calling;

peringatan, ditandai dengan panggilan alarm;

aggression, as indicated by the very forceful pecking

agresi, ditandai dengan patukan yang keras

by both one of the copulatory birds and one of the excited bystanders;

oleh satu burung yang melakukan seks dan satu penonton yang bersemangat;

and sexual arousal.

dan gairah seksual.

Clearly, this is startling,

Tentunya, ini mengagetkan,

and interesting to think about and talk about.

dan menarik untuk dipikirkan dan dibahas.

But if our goal is to understand

Tapi, jika kami ingin memahami

the big picture of how animals interact with their dead,

gambaran besar perilaku hewan saat berinteraksi dengan mayat,

then the most important question we should ask is, is this representative?

maka pertanyaan terpentingnya adalah apakah ini terwakili?

Is this something that's happening consistently?

Apakah ini terjadi terus menerus?

And that's why being able to do systematic studies with crows

Itulah mengapa studi sistematis pada gagak sangatlah berharga,

is so valuable,

because after conducting hundreds of these trials,

karena setelah melakukan ratusan percobaan,

where I was placing these dead crows out on the sidewalks

saat saya meletakkan gagak mati di ratusan wilayah gagak lainnya,

on the territories of hundreds of different pairs,

what we found was that, no, it's not.

kami menemukan bahwa perilaku ini tidak umum.

Contact of any kind,

Kontak jenis apa pun,

whether it was sexual, aggressive

entah seksual, agresif, atau hanya rasa ingin tahu,

or even just exploratory,

only occurred 30 percent of the time.

hanya terjadi di 30% percobaan.

So given that this wasn't representative,

Jadi, karena ini tidak terwakili, ini adalah minoritasnya,

this was the minority,

kami hampir menganggapnya

we may be tempted to just dismiss it

as irrelevant, odd, creepy, weird crow behavior.

sebagai perilaku gagak yang tidak relevan, aneh, dan menakutkan.

But what may surprise you is that behaviors like aggression

Herannya, perilaku agresif atau seksual itu tidak terlalu langka,

or even sexual arousal

aren't all that rare,

and certainly aren't constrained to just crows.

dan tentunya, tidak hanya terjadi pada gagak.

Because while the popular narrative when it comes to animal death behaviors

Narasi populer tentang perilaku kematian hewan

tends to focus on affiliative behaviors

cenderung fokus ke perilaku afiliasi, seperti merawat atau menjaga,

like grooming or guarding,

that is far from the complete list of what even our closest relatives do

itu sangat berbeda dari perilaku hewan yang mirip manusia

around their dead.

di sekitar mayat sesamanya.

In fact, we've documented behaviors like biting, beating and even sex itself

Nyatanya, kami menjumpai

perilaku seperti menggigit, memukul, dan bahkan seks pada banyak hewan,

in a wide variety of animals,

including many primates and dolphins.

termasuk primata dan lumba-lumba.

So where does this leave us in our understanding of animals

Jadi, apa yang kita pahami tentang ritual kematian hewan?

and their death rituals?

Well, for crows, it suggests that,

Untuk gagak, terbukti bahwa,

like insects, they may have a strong adaptive driver

seperti serangga, mereka mungkin punya pendorong adaptif yang kuat

in their interest in their dead.

dalam ketertarikan pada kematian.

In this case, it might be danger learning,

Dalam kasus ini adalah pembelajaran bahaya,

and that might have acted as the inspiration

dan itu mungkin menjadi inspirasi untuk ritual kita juga.

for our own rituals as well.

But when we look more closely,

Tapi, jika kita lihat lagi,

tidak ada narasi sederhana yang bisa menjelaskan banyak perilaku

we see that there's no one simple narrative

that can explain the vast array of behaviors

we see in crows and many other animals.

yang kita lihat pada gagak dan hewan lain.

And that suggests that we are still far from completing that time machine.

Itu menunjukkan bahwa tugas kami belum selesai.

But it's going to be a really fascinating ride.

Tapi, ini akan menjadi perjalanan yang menarik.

Thank you.

Terima kasih.

(Applause)

(Tepuk tangan)