The magpie is considered the villain of the animal kingdom - a pilferer obsessed with stealing trinkets. But it appears that it has been unfairly maligned all along. For despite its centuries-old reputation, new research suggests that the bird is not attracted to shiny objects after all. In fact, as animal psychologists discovered, magpies are actually quite repelled by unfamiliar items.
Psychologists from the University of Exeter discovered that, contrary to popular belief, magpies are actually frightened of new and unfamiliar objects, rather than attracted to them.
The idea of the magpie as a pilferer that steals sparkly items for its nest is a common theme in European folklore:
Rossini made it the theme of his 1817 opera The Thieving Magpie, in which a servant girl is executed for stealing silver jewellery that had been pinched.
But scientists at the University of Exeter have now debunked the myth, proving that magpies are not the flighty thieves we thought they were.The Tintin comic ‘The Castafiore Emerald’ has a similar plot, in which a prized emerald stolen by a magpie.
The researchers carried out a series of tests on wild magpies and a group of the birds housed at a rescue centre. Under carefully controlled exposed to both shiny and non-shiny items and their reactions recorded.
Lead researcher Dr Toni Shephard, from the university’s Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, said: ‘We did not find evidence of an unconditional attraction to shiny objects in magpies. Instead, all objects prompted responses indicating neophobia - fear of new things. We suggest that humans notice when magpies occasionally pick up shiny objects because they believe the birds find them attractive, while it goes unnoticed when magpies interact with less eye-catching items.
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