Magpies remove tracking harnesses that scientists had placed on them | Hacker News Reader

Magpies remove tracking harnesses that scientists had placed on them

nytimes.com

40 pointswglb15 comments

Grown up around Magpie's my whole life, like most Australians, and been swooped more times than I can count.

What I found fascinating is the two sides of the Magpie.

You have the ruthless little buggers that terrorise passers-by relentlessly. A common sight in Australia is cyclists wearing helmets with cable ties stuck to them pointing outwards, like a spiky shield. In swooping season, I cannot walk around my neighbourhood without getting attacked (the Magpies near my house are OK, it's the ones further away that are the problem).

But they can also be super trusting and affectionate if you establish a rapport.

A friend of mine fed one in his backyard, and before long it was flying through the window and perching on his shoulder, nipping at him playfully. It's pretty cute actually!

An elderly neighbour up the road feeds the Magpie's every morning around swooping season, as a sort of peace offering so they'll leave her alone.

We had magpies living in a large tree in our front yard. Never bothered us, but we did see them swooping the occasional passer-by.

One time we saw them breaking small twigs off the tree and dropping them on our cat, who was sitting on our front deck. She was very confused.

The swooping is usually seasonal. It’s a sign they have babies or eggs nearby I think. They mostly have never swooped me, they just chase threateningly from tree to tree while yelling.

Their young are sort of cute and can’t fly, but can hop and walk. The family will watch over them from above while the kids wander your neighborhood, strangely not swooping or yelling at you

Altruistic rescue behavior. Very similar to humans trying to get rid of trackers, and helping others install an ad-blocker. Indeed done in a minute or so.

https://archive.ph/zzDf7

Thank you for the archive. A deviation from the article, has anyone had success with the "download .zip" button on these archive sites? I have tried several (over months) and I only get a 404.

It hasn't worked for years.

Thank you for the confirmation.

In a separate news report [1] about this study, a cognitive biologist cautioned that altruism is not the only possible explanation: “It could just be that the birds themselves - they are attracted of the object. And so they try to go for it. They go after the harness. They pick around, and then they manage to get rid of the harness. And it has nothing to do that they really want to help the other individual.”

[1]: https://www.npr.org/2022/02/28/1083581139/magpies-unexpected...

That should be easy to test, by leaving a few of the same harnesses within reach of the birds. If the birds pick up the stray harnesses too, it's likely object attraction. If the birds leave those alone or merely attack them (like picking them up and dropping them from some height), it's empathy.

In any case, it's not altruism unless the birds take on a risk themselves by trying to remove it from others -- it's merely social behaviour.

I believe a lot of animals have more intelligence and awareness than we give them credit for.

Magpie intelligence is literally legendary.

https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Folklore-of-Magpies

I believe that a lot of animals have more emotion that we give them credit for.

Agree with both of you.

Animals are like us, just simpler.

I agree with you all as well

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