Altruism in Birds? Magpies Have Outwitted Scientists by Helping Each Other Remove Tracking Devices

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magpies are smart birds. all that work to design a state-of-the-art tracking device, and the birds keep removing them

Altruism in Birds? Magpies Have Outwitted Scientists by Helping Each Other Remove Tracking Devices

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 behaviour 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” behaviour 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 behaviour: helping another member of the group without getting an immediate, tangible reward.