A crow becomes parent to a kitten.

In this video, the crow has a remarkable grasp of the nature and needs of a young kitten. The crow feeds, instructs, protects, tolerates, and provides companionship, with intelligent and attentive oversight.

To summarize the above video, Ann and Wally Collito, in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, noticed a kitten about three months old walking around their yard. They then saw a crow hanging around the kitten, and eventually realized the crow had been feeding the kitten with bugs and worms from their yard, and assisting the kitten to find water. Ann videotaped the day-to-day antics of the kitten and crow, as they interacted with each other. She named the kitten Cassie and the crow Moses, using their names in the below extracts from the video.

There was no question Moses had taken Cassie in under his wing and was caring for her as if she was his own. When the kitten wandered out into the street, Moses would squawk and complain until Cassie returned to the sidewalk. Sometimes, he would walk up to her and push her out of the road.

The vet figured they met when both of them were young and somehow Moses knew Cassie needed help. Everyone agreed that he saved Cassie’s life by feeding her.

The friends spent their days playing and teasing each other.

The kitten had kept her distance from Ann and Wally when she and Moses first started hanging out in their yard, but over time she learned to trust them and started spending her evenings inside the couple’s home. In the mornings, Moses knocked on the door with his beak and Ann let Cassie out so she could spend the day with her friend. Even Moses learned to trust the Collitos.

Their friendship lasted for almost five years. One day, Moses flew off and never returned.

You can see the full transcript of this video, from which the above was extracted, and a link to a children’s book narrating this story, here.

Click next page to watch a video of contemporary research on crows, the outcome of which research has caused scientists to speculate that crow intelligence rivals that of chimpanzees.