Re: mindreading - I kind of wonder, does that tie into their vegetarian habits? Like, maybe herons are actually physiologically more like RL herons, but they can't stand hunting because they can hear/sense/whatever their prey's thoughts and fear and pain. So the sickness around it is more a taboo thing that's developed out of this, an awareness passed societally about what hunting and meat-eating means -- "this creature suffered and died before I ate it"?