Scientists Attached Tracking Devices to Magpies. But Nobody Asked The Magpies

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-attached-tracking-devices-to-magpies-that-s-when-things-got-weird

When we attached tiny, backpack-like tracking devices to five Australian magpies for a pilot study, we didn't expect to discover an entirely new social behavior rarely seen in birds.

Our goal was to learn more about the movement and social dynamics of these highly intelligent birds, and to test these new, durable and reusable devices. Instead, the birds outsmarted us.

As our new research paper explains, the magpies began showing evidence of cooperative "rescue" behavior to help each other remove the tracker.

While we're familiar with magpies being intelligent and social creatures, this was the first instance we knew of that showed this type of seemingly altruistic behavior: helping another member of the group without getting an immediate, tangible reward.

*snip*

[niyad]

1. Good for the mags!!

[gratuitous]

2. Swell, now magpies are more advanced than us

"Helping another member of the group without getting an immediate, tangible reward."

[Volaris]

30. Seems to me, the immediate reward is not having a blinky-box stuck to my back.

[lagomorph777]

38. No obvious reward for the rescuer, though.

[soldierant]

33. More advanced than some of us - maybe more advanced than most of us.

Not more advanced than all of us. Not yet.

[live love laugh]

36. Yep this ⬆️

[Beetwasher.]

3. Love This

[Hekate]

4. LOL

[TrogL]

5. They obviously haven't spent enough time around magpies

My yard usually has at least one at any given time.

They play tag with my dog. They attack me on the way to the van. I've seen the dog dig something interesting out of the snow, then one magpie distracts him while the other grabs it.

[PatSeg]

21. How funny!

Well, except for the part about attacking you.

[StClone]

27. The study here is about Australian Magpies

A type of butcherbird, related distantly to the five "real" magpies of more Northern distribution with two in North America. It is by all accounts an even bigger character than our magpies. Check out the videos on Australian Magpie (named by early British explorers because it has a color pattern that is similar to the bird of Britain).

[albacore]

6. They must be Democrats.... they exhibit altruism. nt

[Aussie105]

7. We have a family of 5 here.

They work co-operatively, the older male (?) scopes out the environment, if safe, the others come down to feed off the food I put out.

When the two youngest were first out of the nest mobile, the adults would show them how to eat - graze off grass bugs, hop on the side of the bird feeder, drink the water.

When they initially insisted on being fed mouth to mouth by the adults, the adults would back away and repeat the 'feed yourself' demonstration.

The young ones learnt quickly.

The adults now recognize me by sight.

They are birds, but descended from a long line of very smart dinosaurs.

[Disaffected]

8. Headline:

Magpies Smarter Than Magats

[Nevilledog]

10. Maggots smarter than MAGAts

[LonePirate]

9. Scientists set out to learn about magpies and unexpectedly achieved success.

Humans and birds alike benefited from this experiment.

[El Supremo]

11. A Mischief of Magpies.

Appropriately named. But they are scavengers.

[Aussie105]

12. Omnivorous, actually.

Seeds, insects, grubs, your discarded half eaten fast food hamburger, roadkill - all good food for them.

Get it while you can is their motto.

Part of Mother Natures clean up squad, and one step before scavengers like ants.

[Deminpenn]

35. Stopped throwing food scraps in the trash at all

Just toss them in the backyard where my crows, and other critters, generally clean them up within minutes.

[Skittles]

13. heh

magpies be like, fuck this, I'm not wearing this

[Nevilledog]

14. *snicker*

[Aussie105]

15. Well known fact magpies swear a lot.

You should hear their swearing when another species of birds encroach on their territory.

Expert swoopers too, the ibis that visit regularly have learnt to duck at the right time.

[hatrack]

16. I, for one, welcome our new corvid overlords!!

Hail, King Raven!!!

[Big Blue Marble]

17. Strange it is not?

Magpies remove their trackers, while we voluntarily keep ours in our pockets?
Say again, who is the smartest species?

[Aussie105]

19. My money is on the group that has been around the longest.

And it isn't humans.

133 species in the Corvid (Crow) family. Now you can't do that level of evolution and specialization by being dumb.

Humans - I'm counting the number of species in the Hominid family, can't get past a very low number. 8 or so.

[canetoad]

23. I don't think our maggies are corvids

The Brit magpies are.

I found the local Koorie name for our local Aussie crows (little ravens) - Waarn. How cool is that?

[lunatica]

18. Magpies seem to be smarter that MAGATS.

I bet they don’t drink Koolaid either.

I love Magpie ever since I saw the Australian movie about one who was taken in by a family. I’m sure I would be consistently outsmarted by one!

[Aussie105]

20. Magpie chatter . . .

Marty the Magpie: Yo! Hang on Fred, you got some sort of big bug on your back.
Here, let me get it off you! Stand still!

Fred says: Thanks Marty! Let me check your back!

[canetoad]

22. Doesn't surprise me a bit

They are clever buggers who live in socialist colonies where the two, three, four year old birds work as a co-operative to raise, educate (and bully) the new borns. They're incredibly easy to train and once they suss out a source of food, they are extrememly bold in asking for a treat.

[CaptainTruth]

24. So magpies are smarter than Rethuglicans.

They realize it's beneficial to look out for each other.

[AllyCat]

29. Yes!

[Botany]

25. Magpies are birds of the Corvidae family.

Corvides are very smart.

[MontanaMama]

26. I'm forever trying to outsmart magpies.

They steal my chicken eggs. Bastards.

[Lars39]

31. I wonder how they would react

to a marble egg?

[MontanaMama]

37. Tried it!

A ceramic egg anyway. Looks identical to my chicken’s brown eggs…they know the difference because they peck a hold in the egg so they can hold on to it when they fly. They steal them to take them to their babies to eat.

[Lars39]

39. Darn!

Worth a shot, I guess. My in-laws did the marble trick to get rid of a snake once. :blech:

[AllyCat]

28. I heart magpies!!

[Quixote1818]

32. We look out for one another all right!

[North Shore Chicago]

34. Was just going to post something similar.

This cartoon was one of my faves! These guys were such smart asses!

[librechik]

40. MGs are awesome but they exterminate

smaller bird species in the suburban neighborhoods . Not good.