It’s an old argument but one people still have today, especially when it pertains to children and what kind of adults they’ll eventually turn in to: “Nature vs. Nurture.” In short, it’s a psychological and anthropological question that pits genetics against environment. For example, will a little girl grow up to be a brilliant surgeon because both of her parents were also science-minded geniuses, or will she grow up to be a brilliant surgeon because she was placed on that track early in life and raised in a supportive, academic environment? The “truth” is probably that a little bit of nature and a little bit of nurture do the trick in tandem, but the fact remains that humans are highly suggestible creatures that absorb what they see around them, and that becomes their norm.
It’s also apparently true for birds. A Twitter user just posted a video of a lovely little blue jay named Flop. It’s a living, feather-covered “nature vs. nurture” experiment, and it comes down hard on the side of nurture. This rescue blue jay was raised in a home full of cats, and it never much heard any other birds tweet. And so, it imitates its surrogate family. Behold, a meowing bird.
Blue Jay was raised by cats and now meows like one. The bird version of Mowgli. pic.twitter.com/kukkVX2NyY
— Adam Best (@adamcbest) February 2, 2018