These Birds Protect Each Other – and Outwit Scientists!

Researchers have placed small GPS tracking devices on Australian magpies in an effort to learn more about their movements and social dynamics – and quickly uncovered an unusual problem-solving behavior in the birds. 

Scientists were astonished when the magpies collaborated to purposefully remove the tracking devices from the affected birds even though they received no direct benefit to themselves. This is an example of altruistic behavior that is rarely observed in birds, and provides strong evidence of problem-solving and cooperation among the social species, reports George Dvorsky from Gizmodo. 

Within ten minutes, one female magpie began snipping at the GPS harness of another younger bird. By day three of the experiment, the magpies had successfully removed a tracker off of a dominant male. It is likely the other birds perceived the tracker as a type of parasite that needed to be removed, and these highly social magpies did not hesitate to “help” their fellow mate. Though the researchers were hoping to gather information on how magpies socialize, if they had any patterns of movements, and how age, sex, or rank affects their daily activities, among others, they were happy to instead discover the collaborative tendency — coined “rescue behavior” — that is present among this species.