Behavioral biologist Jane Atkinson and her colleagues have been studying the subtleties of how crows steal food from one another. Atkinson had been watching the birds at the beach as they fed on fish, clams and other small animals in the intertidal zone. She noticed that if a crow had found a particularly large meal that couldn't be eaten in a single gulp, another crow would often come by and try to steal the food away. Food theft is fairly common in the bird world, so the crows' thievery wasn't unexpected. What really intrigued Atkinson was that the birds employed two different tactics to take the food. In some instances, the thieving bird would take an aggressive approach - typically involving some chasing or physical contact, such as pecking in other exchanges, however, the thief would use a more passive method: merely approaching the other bird secretively and stealing the food without any commotion at all. What the team wanted to know was: how did these tactics fit into the group foraging practices of the crows?
According to the passage, the question that interested the research team was ____.
whether the crows' stealing practices were instinctive or acquired
why the crows chose to steal
related to the crows' foraging practices
whether the nature of the food affected the degree of attempted theft
whether the stealing practices of crows differed from those of other birds
It is clear from the passage that the research team was not surprised that the crows were trying to steal from each other common ____.
because this is a practice among birds
since there was a scarcity of food at the time
though crows don't steal food as often as other birds do
but it was surprised at their rate of success
but the bitterness of the fight came as a surprise
According to the passage, when one crow plans to steal food from another one, ____.
this is really a means of establishing its superiority
it will invariably try to do so in the first place without being seen
there will inevitably be a fight between the two
this is a sure sign that both crows are really hungry
it will sometimes approach quite openly and boldly
We understand from the passage that so long as a crow ____.
can swallow its food at one gulp, it will encounter no challenge
can find food easily, it will not steal from another crow
can get food by stealing, it won't look elsewhere for it
has eaten well, it is unlikely to try to steal food
is able to steal food without fighting, this is the method it will favor
It is clear from the passage that Jane Atkinson and her colleagues ____.
knew much more about crows than any other type of bird
are specialists in bird behavior
are only interested in the eating habits of birds
are particularly interested in the different types of food that crows like to eat
are impressed by the similarity between stealing practices of all bird species