Australian Birds Of Prey Have Harnessed The Use Of Fire To Flush Out Their Prey.
'It has now been seemingly confirmed that birds of prey in Australia are not only responsible for the spread of wildfires, but that they are doing it deliberately. This means that humans are not unique in having harnessed fire and were perhaps even beaten to it by these avian arsonists.
This is not the first time that evidence that raptors might have been harnessing the red flower for their own use. Back in 2016 ornithologist Bob Gosford reported multiple accounts that both black kites (Milvus migrans) and brown falcons (Falco berigora) were spreading wildfires in northern Australia, something that slotted in with indigenous Aboriginal knowledge about the birds. But many other experts were skeptical about the behavior.
It seemed obvious that the birds were indeed spreading fire, it was just that some did not believe that there was any intent behind it and that it was nothing more than accidental on the raptors' behalf.
In response to the criticism, Gosford doubled down, spending the last year collecting even more eyewitness accounts of birds of prey deliberately carrying burning sticks and embers to set alight other bits of grassland. In his latest paper, published in the Journal of Ethnobiology, Gosford details another 20 eyewitness reports of this behavior, as well as adding the whistling kite (Haliastur sphenurus) to the select group of fire-starting birds.'>>>
http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/australian-birds-of-prey-have-harnessed-the-use-of-fire-to-flush-out-their-prey/
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