‘Kleptoparasitism’ !?! ~ what Crow did to a Cormorant !

Heard or seen – ‘Kleptoparasitism’  !?! -  a common foraging strategy where birds [often Crows]  steal food from other birds, and sometimes other animals, instead of finding it themselves, often relying on intelligence to snatch food from distracted victims. 

The  Panchatantra  (Sanskrit: पञ्चतन्त्र, "Five Treatises") is an ancient aIndian collection of interrelated animal fables in Sanskrit verse and prose, arranged within a "frame story". Attributed to the scholar Vishnu Sharma around 300 BCE,  originally composed to educate on wise conduct of life and worldly wisdom.

 

A business fable is a motivational fable, parable or other fictional story that shares a lesson or lessons that are intended to be applied in the business world with the aim to improve leadership skills, personal skills, or the organizational culture. Business fables are intended to show readers how different leadership, project management, and other tools can be used in real life situations.  

It is a Schoolmates reunion, whence they discuss the challenge of handling the changes in lives.  A business Manager explains that he was afraid of change until he heard this allegorical story – of two mice and two ‘little people’ living in a maze.  The mice, named Sniff and Scurry, are simpleminded and instinctive; they run the same path every day, eating cheese when they find it, but are always ready to move on. The littlepeople, Hem and Haw, search for a special kind of Cheese that makes them happy and fulfilled by keeping track of where they have found it before. All four discover a spot where their favorite cheese is regularly available, called Cheese Station C. The mice continue to run the entire maze each day while the littlepeople stop exploring and settle at Cheese Station C.  

One day the supply at Cheese Station C is exhausted. The mice accept that there is no more cheese and continue their running path. The littlepeople sit at the station confused and upset. Hem protests that there ought to be Cheese, and Haw wonders where the mice have gone. Meanwhile, the mice find a new supply of cheese at Cheese Station N. The littlepeople remaining at the same place become frustrated, more as they become hungry.  Eventually Haw accepts that running the maze is the only way he will ever have Cheese again, faces his fear of moving on, and leaves Hem behind.  

                               On the wall of Cheese Station N, Hem writes several lessons that change is inevitable and keeping up with it is the only way to continue having Cheese.   

After Michael finishes the story, the classmates agree to meet again before dinner and discuss it. They tell different stories of encountering change and how they, or someone else, failed to respond to it. All of them agree that the Cheese story is a useful parable to follow and tell their friends.  

The foregoing is essence of - Who Moved My Cheese? - An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life - by Spencer Johnson that describes four reactions to change released in 1998.  This became a bestselling motivational book about four characters living in a maze who search for "Cheese" (a metaphor for what you want in life).  .

Who Stole My Cheese?!! -  is a satirical parody of Spencer Johnson’s book, written to address corporate scandals and greed, by Ilene Hochberg, which  suggests that the cheese (representing employee benefits and savings) was intentionally taken by "The Boss" and "The Accountant". It replaces the original mice with two rats named Snivel and Scurvy and the littlepeople with "loyal employees" trapped in a maze of corporate underhandedness. 

 

Moving away from books, it is common for highly intelligent crows to engage in kleptoparasitism, or food stealing, from other birds,  and animals too.  Cormorants are expert divers, but they often catch large fish that can be difficult and time-consuming to swallow whole due to the size. This struggle, sometimes taking minutes, creates a vulnerable window of opportunity. Sometimes  crow may wait for a cormorant to surface with a fish and then harass or distract the cormorant until it drops its catch. In the ensuing struggle, the crow may successfully snatch the fish, the fish may escape back into the water, or the cormorant might manage to swallow it just in time.   

The other day, at Kairavini pushkarini, the temple tank of Sri Parthasarathi swami at Thiruvallikkeni -  a Cormorant emerged out of water successful with a catch of a fish but within the seconds, its catch was gone, snatched away by the Crow who flew away with the wish.

 
Here are some photos.
 
Regards – S Sampathkumar
20.12.2025