Some time ago on this medium there was a short exchange on whether magpies
were more likely to swoop black dogs than those of another colour. I am
well-placed to test such hypotheses, having both a black dog and a white
dog. In my experience the white dog is swooped about 3 times more than the
black dog.
I do not infer from this that colour is the decisive factor. The white dog
is (a) bigger than the black dog (b) usually at a greater distance from me
and (c) more likely to have its head down, sniffing the grass etc.
Moreover, it is quite possible that the white dog has been found to give a
more satisfactory reaction, leaping in the air and giving an angry woof,
compared to the black dog's little head-down scamper.
One wonders about the purpose of dog-swooping. If the white dog is
representative of its species, there would certainly be no evolutionary
advantage in the practice, because I know that it only reinforces the white
dog's resolve to grab the first ground-feeding magpie fledgling that comes
within its reach. Moreover, the swooping magpie - it is often the same
one - knows that a swoop does not cause the white dog to leave the area, but
only guarantees that the swooper will be briefly, if ineffectively, chased.
Contributors to this list frequently ask to be told something. Well what I
would like to be told is whether there is any evidence that swooping magpies
have more success at raising young than non-swooping ones. Pending such
advice, I am not attracted to the theory that any kind of evolutionary
selection is at work here.
My own theory is that some magpies have found that, if they swoop, this
results in less human presence in their patch, especially in the form of
small boys. "Well, if you don't want to be swooped, Tom, don't walk to
school across the oval. Go round the long way." That, in my view, is
exactly the approach that is encouraging more and continued swooping.
To counter this, the swooping magpie, rather than being deported to
Gungahlin or wherever, should be taught that the swoop does not produce the
result it has so far been led to expect. Here is my plan. One of the
under-used ACTION buses should be on stand-by loaded up with a platoon of
volunteers equipped with umbrellas, pike-staffs, magpie-resistant hats
(large eyes painted on the top of them), any available old banners left over
from past protests about unwanted building projects, and a reasonable number
of white dogs.
At the first swoop of the day, anywhere in Canberra, this contingent would
be bussed in, and would then march up and down in the swoop zone for an hour
or so, perhaps singing any defiant song that they all know the words of -
which would, unhappily, exclude our national anthem. Magpies are
intelligent birds, and I have no doubt that if pursued diligently the
suggested strategy would lead to a swoop-free Canberra within two years at
the outside.
Geoffrey Dabb
email :
ph/fax : 02 6295 3449
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