“Magpies Have Outwitted Scientists by Helping Each Other Remove Tracking Devices”, Dominique Potvin2022-02-21 (bird; backlinks)⁠:

When we attached tiny, backpack-like tracking devices to 5 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.

…A novel aspect of our research was the design of the harness that held the tracker. We devised a method that didn’t require birds to be caught again to download precious data or reuse the small devices. We trained a group of local magpies to come to an outdoor, ground feeding “station” that could either wirelessly charge the battery of the tracker, download data, or release the tracker and harness by using a magnet. The harness was tough, with only one weak point where the magnet could function. To remove the harness, one needed that magnet, or some really good scissors. We were excited by the design, as it opened up many possibilities for efficiency and enabled a lot of data to be collected.

We wanted to see if the new design would work as planned, and discover what kind of data we could gather. How far did magpies go? Did they have patterns or schedules throughout the day in terms of movement, and socialising? How did age, sex or dominance rank affect their activities?

All this could be uncovered using the tiny trackers—weighing less than one gram—we successfully fitted 5 of the magpies with. All we had to do was wait, and watch, and then lure the birds back to the station to gather the valuable data.

…It Was Not To Be: …During our pilot study, we found out how quickly magpies team up to solve a group problem. Within 10 minutes of fitting the final tracker, we witnessed an adult female without a tracker working with her bill to try and remove the harness off a younger bird. Within hours, most of the other trackers had been removed. By day 3, even the dominant male of the group had its tracker successfully dismantled.

We don’t know if it was the same individual helping each other or if they shared duties, but we had never read about any other bird cooperating in this way to remove tracking devices…We never considered the magpies may perceive the tracker as some kind of parasite that requires removal.

Just like magpies, we scientists are always learning to problem solve. Now we need to go back to the drawing board to find ways of collecting more vital behavioral data to help magpies survive in a changing world.

See Also:

• “Australian Magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen) cooperate to remove tracking devices”

• “Rescue behavior in a social bird: removal of sticky ‘bird-catcher tree’ seeds by group members”

• “Social learning spreads knowledge about dangerous humans among American crows”

• “Modifications to the Aesop’s Fable Paradigm Change New Caledonian Crow Performances”

• “Ravens parallel great apes in physical and social cognitive skills”

• “Wild American crows gather around their dead to learn about danger”

• “Brainiacs, not birdbrains: Crows possess higher intelligence long thought a primarily human attribute”

• “Birds do have a brain cortex—and think: Like mammals, birds have a pallium that sustains correlates of consciousness”

• “Are birds smarter than mathematicians? Pigeons (Columba livia) perform optimally on a version of the Monty Hall Dilemma”

• “String-pulling in the Greater Vasa parrot (Coracopsis vasa): A replication of capacity, findings of longitudinal retention, and evidence for a species-level general insight factor across five physical cognition tasks”

• “Birds have primate-like numbers of neurons in the forebrain”

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