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Sections Home Page Local News AP News Archives Business Classifieds Event Calendar Forums Life Opinion Obituaries Photo Gallery Since We Asked Sports Tempo Weather Special Coverage 2006 Britt Festivals --> Shop Our Valley AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Search Our Valley Special Sections Homelife Magazine Joy Magazine Readers Choice 2006 Oregon Golf Info Oregon Wine Info Our Valley Other Publications Local Links Ashland News eSouthernOregon Newspapers In Education Personals Moving Here Movie Listings TV Listings Volunteer Customer Service Advertise With Us Media Kit Place Classified Ad Contact Us FAQ's Home Delivery Site Map --> Email Story to a Friend June 11, 2006 Altrusism can't stop the mob By Bill Varble Mail Tribune A fluttering and a pyracantha, shrieks of rage, a blue and black hubbub that resolves into frantic Steller's jays popping in and out of the big bush like cartoon characters fighting in one of those cartoon dust clouds. The Ashland hill we are driving down is so steep that as we near the ruckus the sight line is almost as good through the sunroof as the windshield. We stop and watch the mobbing. For that's what it's called when smaller birds gang up on a predator bird in an attempt to drive it off. You often see Brewer's blackbirds mobbing crows, and if you're lucky you might see crows mobbing great horned owls. There must be a dozen Steller's jays, the darker, top-knotted, higher-elevation cousins of Southern Oregon's ubiquitous scrub jay the blue jay, a cousin of both, is an eastern bird and not native to the American West. They keep plunging into the bush, which keeps erupting jays. The screams filling the air sound almost like the cries of a red-tailed hawk, but angry. The crow appears in the street by the curb under the bush, dark and massive next to the blue birds it regards with studied indifference insofar as it notices them at all. Advertisement The baby Steller's jay flutters down through the pyracantha like a scrap of rag. It flaps its wings but doesn't move much and the crow is on it with a sharp pecking that puts specks of down in the air. Roused to new fury, the defenders swoop over and over, trying to strike the crow at the nadir of their arcs. The nestling flops but cannot flee. Its doom is in sight. And then an amazing thing. A scrub jay, unmistakable with its lighter gray and white markings and crestless head, joins the sorties against the common enemy. Then another. How extraordinary is this? For one species to help another defend a baby against a common enemy? What appears to be altruism among animals can often be shown to have an evolutionary advantage, but that's for close relatives. If you are a parent, and each offspring has 50 percent of your genes, and you can save the kids by sacrificing yourself, your action is personally altruistic but may be selfish in evolution's arithmetic. Biologists, I believe, say that natural selection can favor this kind of behavior only if the individuals helped are close relatives of the altruist. And Steller's and scrub jays are different species. So what's up? It's as if Ma and Pa Steller's jay, needing all the help they could get, called their cousins, their neighbors and even some relatives from whom they split way back down the evolutionary tree. Interestingly, crows sometimes breed with the aid of yearling helpers, or first- and second-year birds that don't nest and breed on their own but return to help their parents. Scrub jays do this too, but usually only in Florida where they live in isolated populations. The implacable crow isn't troubled by any of this. A few more pecks of the heavy bill and there's blood and flesh in the down and the nestling has quit moving. The jays continue to harass the crow after hope is gone, but it is a colossus among pygmies, and indifferent as it goes about the routine of making a living. We drive off feeling lucky to have seen the drama. We do not despise the crow for its cruel efficiency any more than you would hate an egret for eating a field mouse or a lion for dining on wildebeest. Birds, like other animals, steal freely from each other. John James Audubon wrote of the blue jay: "It robs every nest it can find, sucks the eggs like the crow, or tears to pieces and devours the young birds." Scrub jays and Steller's jays themselves steal food from the caches of acorn woodpeckers, another abundant bird hereabouts. And like crows, the jays eat other birds' eggs and nestlings. The universe is no doubt a beautiful mystery unfolding in exquisite harmony, but it's also a violent place in which all neighborhoods are dangerous. A tiny corner of the workaday blanket that shrouds the natural world was lifted for us, and we peeked underneath. We drive on feeling sad for the baby jay but grateful withal. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] . 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