Clever strategists: Australian Magpies vary mobbing strategies, not intensity, relative to different species of predator

PeerJ. 2013 Mar 19:1:e56. doi: 10.7717/peerj.56. Print 2013.

Abstract

Anti-predator behaviour of magpies was investigated, using five species of model predators, at times of raising offspring. We predicted differences in mobbing strategies for each predator presented and also that raising juveniles would affect intensity of the mobbing event. Fourteen permanent resident family groups were tested using 5 different types of predator (avian and reptilian) known to be of varying degrees of risk to magpies and common in their habitat. In all, 210 trials were conducted (across three different stages of juvenile development). We found that the stage of juvenile development did not alter mobbing behaviour significantly, but predator type did. Aerial strategies (such as swooping) were elicited by taxidermic models of raptors, whereas a taxidermic model of a monitor lizard was approached on the ground and a model snake was rarely approached. Swooping patterns also changed according to which of the three raptors was presented. Our results show that, in contrast to findings in other species, magpies vary mobbing strategy depending on the predator rather than varying mobbing intensity.

Keywords: Anti-predator behaviour; Australian Magpie; Mobbing; Risk assessment.

Grants and funding

Funding for this project was provided by the University of New England to Adam Koboroff and by the Australian Research Council (grant DP0452557) to Rogers and Kaplan. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.