An experiment that didn't go as planned is described in new research. The scientists watched as the birds helped each other remove the devices, which they say is a sign of altruism and a strong evidence of a problem.
Rescue behavior is when a helpers tries to free another person in distress with no obvious benefit to the other person. This type of thing is common in ants, but it has also been documented in warblers, who are known to liberate each other from sticky Pisonia grandis seeds. It's possible that this is the first documented case of rescue behavior in Australian Magpies, according to the paper.
The purpose of the experiment was to learn more about the movements and social dynamics of magpies, like how far they travel each day and how their social behaviors are influenced by sex, age, and rank. The second purpose of the study was to test the new tracking device.
Most trackers are too big to fit on small and medium sized birds, and small trackers tend to be limited when it comes to data storage, battery life, and reusability. The new tracker was designed to overcome these problems. The birds wouldn't have to be re- caught at the end of the experiment because the device was attached to a backpack-like harness. Potvin wrote that the team was excited by the design as it opened up many possibilities for efficiency and enabled a lot of data to be collected.
The team trained a group of magpies to frequent an outdoor feeding station. The birds were fitted with the device. The design was meant to be strong, but not so strong that the magnet couldn't function. Potvin explained that the harness required a magnet or some really good scissors to be removed.
Almost immediately, things began to fall apart. Within 10 minutes of fitting the fifth and final tracker, an adult female without a tracker tried to remove the harness from a younger bird. The final tracker was removed from a dominant male by the third day after this pattern was repeated. The scientists aren't sure if the same individual removed all of the harnesses or if others helped, but they said it was a sign of rescue behavior. Potvin said the birds needed to be willing to help other people and accept help.
The scientists wrote in their paper that the newly documented behavior is consistent with complex cognitive problem solving.
[It] is not clear if the Magpies tested different parts of the harness before being able to snap it off at the weakest point, or if they simply persevered until the harness broke. If the former, this may demonstrate cognitive flexibility and learning with collaborative problem solving. Without further specific testing, however, it is difficult to establish if the Magpies worked on a weak point of the harness or if attempts at removal were somewhat random or systematic. Nevertheless, further research into cognitive problem solving within Magpies, especially in the context of helping other group members, is warranted to further understand collaborative behaviour. In addition, we suggest that attempts to track animals with high cognitive and/or cooperative abilities, should take into consideration potential collaborative efforts to remove devices.
Social species have high intelligence and problem solving abilities. It is a good idea to cooperate in these contexts as it increases an individual's chance of survival within the group. These cognitive traits allow magpies to defend territory and raise young in groups with as many as a dozen members. The researchers hadn't considered that the tracking device was going to need to be removed.
That is how science works sometimes. The team didn't get the data they wanted, but their experiment still yielded interesting results. The need for small pilot studies is shown in the new paper.
The Orangutans were close to inventing stone tools.
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