When researchers attached tracking devices to five Australian magpies as part of a pilot study, the researchers discovered an entirely new social behaviour rarely seen in birds.

The goal of the pilot study was to learn more about the movement and social dynamics of these highly intelligent birds. However, they found that the magpies were so smart that they knew how to take the devices off.

John Stanley talks to Doctor Dominique Potvin, Senior Lecturer in Animal Ecology at the University of the Sunshine Coast, to learn how these birds managed to take these tracking devices off.

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