Birds of prey are starting fires DELIBERATELY

[Philip Veerman <>]

Well it all revolves around the word “DELIBERATELY”......... Of which we can’t know. Sure they could, as “Steve Debus, from the University of New England, an expert in predatory birds said he believed it would be difficult for researchers to distinguish between birds incidentally grasping burning twigs with prey and those deliberately picking them up.”

 

But surely once flying with a burning stick the impulse would be to fly away from it and then drop it, as the disadvantage of not dropping a burning stick would be rather extreme.

 

Philip

 

From: Martin Butterfield [
Sent: Friday, 12 February 2016 9:14 AM
To: Geoffrey Dabb
Cc: COG List
Subject: Re: FW: [canberrabirds] Birds of prey are starting fires DELIBERATELY

 

What that link says is something about the Daily Mail.  When I grew up in the UK my Dad used to refer to that journal as the "Daily Liar" (which given that he was a Daily Express reader, is a pretty big call).

Martin Butterfield

http://franmart.blogspot.com.au/

 

On 12 February 2016 at 08:59, Geoffrey Dabb <> wrote:

The ‘THIS MAY ALSO INTEREST YOU’ link says something about this item …

 

From: kym bradley [
Sent: Friday, 12 February 2016 8:07 AM
To:
Subject: [canberrabirds] Birds of prey are starting fires DELIBERATELY

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3439042/Birds-prey-starting-fires-DELIBERATELY-Brown-falcon-dropped-smouldering-twigs-Australian-bush-smoke-mice-insects-say-researchers.html

Australia's birds of prey are starting bushfires ... www.dailymail.co.uk Birds of prey are suspected of deliberately starting fires to capture fleeing animals in the Australian Bush. No other animal apart from man has been recorded as ...