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back to article If Australian animals don't poison you or eat you, they'll BURN DOWN YOUR HOUSE

Already replete with sharks, crocodiles, snakes and poisonous jellyfish galore, Australia may also be home to arsonist birds that spread fire so they can feed on animals as they flee. The belief that birds like the Whistling Kite, Black Kite and Brown Falcon spread grass fires goes back so far that it's commemorated in …

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  1. David Roberts
    Holmes

    I did wonder about cause and effect

    Why would the first fire bird pick up a burning twig?

    One possibility; thought it was a cooked snake then dropped it when it wasn't.

    Another possibility; picked up a smouldering animal then dropped it because it was too hot, or just to settle down and eat it.

    There must be a common use case for moving burning things before the admittedly smart birds can see the effect of dropping something that is smouldering and seeing fire start, and making the intuitive leap that results in the consolidation of observed behaviour into learned behaviour.

    Could make future fire insurance claims interesting as well. Bloody bird done it, mate!

    5 0 Reply
    1. Roger Varley
      Reply Icon

      Re: I did wonder about cause and effect

      "Why would the first fire bird pick up a burning twig?"

      You can do the same amount of wondering about why anything happened for the first time. Given the number of edible plants vs inedible plants, is it just lucky we discovered agriculture before everyone gave up on the plant thing as being a waste of time?

      5 0 Reply
    2. Named coward
      Reply Icon

      Re: I did wonder about cause and effect

      Why is it such a big leap to imagine that these Birds are intelligent enough?

      Known Fact: we can carry sticks (we do build nests that way)

      Observation 1: The bright thing that we don't get too close to (hot) drives all our food crazy and makes for easy catches

      Observation 2: The bright hot thing also tends to get bigger

      Observation 3 : We can get close to the edge (especially a receding edge) of the bright hot thing without much issue

      Conclusion: If we carry a stick that has the bright hot stuff to another place it will also get bigger and provide more food

      7 0 Reply
    3. Tikimon
      Reply Icon

      Re: I did wonder about cause and effect

      I wonder if the color Red might have something to do with it? I'm thinking of a great incident where some photographers were trying for pictures of golden eagles in a snowy area. They were cutting pieces of meat to toss out and bring them in for close pictures. It happened that the knife had a bright red handle, and one of the eagles swooped in and grabbed it. They got some awesome pictures of a friggin' eagle flying around holding a knife! Talk about Death From Above!

      Anyway, they seem to be drawn to reddish, meat and blood colored things. Might relate, might not...

      5 0 Reply
      1. Mage Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: I did wonder about cause and effect

        A Canadian crow stole a knife from a crime scene.

        0 0 Reply
  2. DNTP
    FAIL

    Typical lazy game devs

    Instead of bothering to create new content for this expansion, they just re-skin existing NPCs, buff their INT stat a little, and make them "fire elemental damage" types.

    6 0 Reply
  3. Triumphantape

    I'll be impressed

    When I see a bird with a box of matches starting the fire.

    2 0 Reply
  4. c1ue

    The old cartoon

    Brings to mind the old cartoon where one vulture says to the other:

    Screw this waiting, let's KILL something!

    6 0 Reply
  5. LeahroyNake
    Joke

    I see a Prodigy

    One bird picks up a burning stick and he is the Firestarter !

    3 0 Reply
  6. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Happy

    FWIW

    We once had a dog that taught itself to open doors... inwards!

    For months the whole family were all accusing each other of leaving doors open, until my brother walked past the dining room window and glanced in at the exact moment the dog's paw landed on the door handle, and he performed a sort of pirouette pulling the door open in the process.

    Once we knew he could do it, we actually found it very useful - just had to remember to lock bedroom doors.

    3 0 Reply
    1. Triumphantape
      Reply Icon

      Re: FWIW

      I had a dog that said "hi", I'm not kidding either.

      Everyday for I came home and said "hi" in a high pitched voice to my doggos, eventually one would run up and make like it was doing a yawn with a high pitched sound... but I realized it was making the same sound every time "hiiiii".

      2 0 Reply
      1. fajensen
        Reply Icon

        Re: FWIW

        My dog smiles at me and my wife - it doesn't look so good on a doggie face, but thats what she does. She has a different expression with strangers.

        0 0 Reply
    2. Sherrie Ludwig
      Reply Icon
      Holmes

      Re: FWIW

      We once had a dog that taught itself to open doors... inwards!

      I had a pit bull that could do that! The old, crafty black cat we had could open inward-swinging doors, and since he had basically raised the dog from puppyhood, the dog could do so as well, using both paws to turn the doorknob in the same method as the cat. I miss them both. My current dog and cat, while personable, are not as smart.

      0 0 Reply
  7. LaeMing
    Alien

    So we can add 'use fire' to the ever-growing list of things humans falsely claim only they can do.

    5 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Posted by an amoeba.

      Have a nice day.

      0 0 Reply
  8. kneedragon

    Flying Pyros.

    Come to Australia, the lucky country, where even the wild-life are fkkun pyros....

    What's worse? Being bitten on the bum by a Redback, or being torched by a feral pidgeon?

    In America, cows have guns.

    In Australia, crows say "Farque!" and they can use matches....

    1 0 Reply
  9. kneedragon

    Second comment, because it has just occurred to me.

    In 1980, we all KNEW that Dingos won't take a baby, so this damn woman is obviously a liar and a murderer...

    Most of us have SEEN Australian wildlife for maybe ten minutes, in its' native habitat. If that. What we know about it's behaviour, we read inside the lid of a box of Tally-Ho cigarette papers.

    If the native people tell us the damn things spread fire on purpose, I would listen to them...

    2 0 Reply
  10. CentralCoasty
    Holmes

    Stretched out in the pool on Sunday in a balmy summers 42c I watched the local birds behaviour around the dogs water bowl. I cant say it was intentional, but it seemed to me that one bird would fly in, attract the attention of our dog & the two would then go tearing off down the garden. Following which the water bowl would then be instantly swamped by a horde of birds..... when the dog came back, away they all go.... two minutes later another solitary bird comes along and it all repeats again.

    So I certainly wouldn't put it past the buggers from learning to use fire as well. Cockatoo's can shred a camper van/tent very quickly in order to get to food - even if they cant see it. They know there is likely to be some inside.

    2 0 Reply
  11. camote

    We need those birds in the Whitehouse now!

    1 0 Reply
    1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Linux

      @camote

      We need those birds in the Whitehouse now!

      Trump could challenge them all to an intelligence test, to see who is the greatest "bird brain" of them all

      0 0 Reply

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