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So much for fire control – JoNova reports that raptors have been photographed congregating on the edge of large Australian bushfires, picking up burning sticks, and deliberately setting new spot fires in advance of the main blaze to flush out small mammals and other prey. This discovery potentially has profound implications for fire management in places like California.
I’ve personally seen Aussie raptors do phenomenally clever things. Australia used to have a serious problem with introduced cane toads. The toads are toxic, so they spread like crazy, the predators which would normally keep such a pest under control all died when they tried to eat the toads.
Then somewhere, somewhen, an Australian bird figured out how to eat the toads without getting poisoned – they flip the toads over and eat out their stomachs, leaving the toxic parts of the flesh uneaten.
Nowadays cane toads are a lot rarer, and in toad season it is not unusual to find dried out toad corpses with no stomachs.
originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: midnightstar
Doesn't mean the birds can't learn though. Some of the smartest non-human critters on the planets are avian.
originally posted by: midnightstar
Dont believe it when I see a bird take a buring stick then I will .
sure learning how to eat a toed is one thing but NO animal other then man has every learned to harness fire .
Easy for people to say the birds are doing it now Prove it .
You do know witha wild fire the fire can jump miles with heavy fire produced wind
originally posted by: Cheddarhead
originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: midnightstar
Doesn't mean the birds can't learn though. Some of the smartest non-human critters on the planets are avian.
Birds are absolutely capable of abstract thought and are highly intelligent and observant. Live with one for a few years and watch what they pick up.
True story- One night I was washing dishes with one of my parakeets on my shoulder. She realized that water comes out of the kitchen faucet, decided she wanted a bath, so she ran down my arm and tried to get into the dish water. Later on, the other parakeet watched her bathing in the kitchen sink, so be began bathing in the kitchen sink, too.
The scary part was when he made the connection that water came out of the faucet in the bathroom just like it does from the kitchen, so now he bathes and drinks from the bathroom sink.
originally posted by: ketsuko
So here's a new one.
In Australia, there are reports of a different kind of arsonist at work during wildfire season.
The firehawks do it. Apparently, there have been reports from the Aborigines for some time and there are currently studies that claim that at least three types of raptors may have picked up the trick of deliberately spreading wildfires by setting new ones with burning bits from existing fires.
Why?
I read this recently but I've never heard of this before but its unlikely the aborigininal would invent something like this.
They benefit from the fleeing prey or can scavenge off prey that didn't make it out.
So much for fire control – JoNova reports that raptors have been photographed congregating on the edge of large Australian bushfires, picking up burning sticks, and deliberately setting new spot fires in advance of the main blaze to flush out small mammals and other prey. This discovery potentially has profound implications for fire management in places like California.
Now I realize this is some people's least favorite source because the site tend to be climate skeptical, but this story has nothing to do with climate change. And it's backed with two different links -- Live Science and study abstract.
There are at the moment no credible reports of American birds of prey employing this tactic, only Australian ones, but how many people have thought to look for it?
They used to think only South African great whites employed breaching, but recent studies showed that given the right environment, whites in both Australia and off the West Coast will breach too. So it's not necessarily a stretch to think that US raptors could learn to pick up burning bits of brush to fly on to the next unburned patch and smoke out prey.
And while this essay's author has never personally witnessed this type of behavior, he does mention cane toads.
I’ve personally seen Aussie raptors do phenomenally clever things. Australia used to have a serious problem with introduced cane toads. The toads are toxic, so they spread like crazy, the predators which would normally keep such a pest under control all died when they tried to eat the toads.
Then somewhere, somewhen, an Australian bird figured out how to eat the toads without getting poisoned – they flip the toads over and eat out their stomachs, leaving the toxic parts of the flesh uneaten.
Nowadays cane toads are a lot rarer, and in toad season it is not unusual to find dried out toad corpses with no stomachs.
If birds can figure out how to turn the cane toad into a safe source of food and spread that behavior through their populations, then why not learn how to use fire to their advantage?
Scary to think the birds in your own backyard might be thinking about a BBQ, huh?