A Higher Order Of Intelligence

"A magpie that didn’t have a tracker on came up to one of the individuals that did and started pecking at it."

"We were thinking, ‘what’s going on? Are they trying to get it off? And then we were thinking, ‘Oh, it’s really hard to get these things off. There’s no way it’ll be able to do it’."

"The motions they were doing, it was clear, targeted, like, ‘I’m going to take this giant thing off you’."

"If they were fooling around with the tracker, at the top, they would never have gotten it off."

"They either had to show tremendous tenacity or problem-solving by doing a range of different behaviours, and snipping at different points, to be able to get it off."{

"We found there wasn’t anything in the literature. This was actually a completely new behaviour in a completely new situation, which was kind of cool."

Queensland-based animal ecologist Dominique Potvin

The birds gathered together to work on removing the harnesses Alamy

We err in underestimating the intelligence of other animals in the belief that only humans have defining emotions such as empathy, or the capacity to assess situations then act according to their intentions. A research project being conducted in Australia went somewhat off the rails unexpectedly with the animal subjects -- highly intelligent birds -- failing to cooperate. The scientists set out to study magpies by fitting tiny harnesses with GPS trackers on the birds.

The purpose was routine enough, and is often carried through by scientists intending to measure the movements of animals and follow their travels for research purposes. In this instance where the intention was to find out more about the flying habits and social dynamics of magpies, the birds decided to take matters into their own claws and beaks. In the process actually teaching the researchers a good deal about the social dynamics of magpies.

The researchers deliberately placed the harnesses in such a way as to prevent them from accidentally falling off or being pried away, by placing the weakest part carefully positioned under the birds' breast to ensure they couldn't be pecked away by the birds using their beaks to free themselves from the harnesses. One of the researchers noticed an unharnessed bird paying close attention to one of the five magpies that had been fitted with a harness.

And it took but minutes before the magpies tended to one another in identifying the weak point then applying direct, targeted force to free each of the birds from the presence of the irritating harness. None of the birds was able to free itself; it was a cooperative effort on the part of the group itself, one bird ministering to another until all were freed.

Without themselves observing four of the birds actively removing the devices, it would have been a stretch of the imagination to foresee these birds assessing the situation in such a manner that they would understand what would be required to enact the rescue between themselves. Intelligent animals they certainly are. As are crows and ravens and parrots, among avian species known for their high intelligence.

"When we attached tiny tracking devices to five magpies for a pilot study, we didn't expect to discover a social behaviour rarely seen in birds."

"Our goal was to learn more about the movement and social dynamics of these highly intelligent birds."

"Instead, the birds outsmarted us."

Dr.Dominique Potvin, lecturer in animal ecology, Sunshine Coast University, Australia