Australian Birds of Prey Are Deliberately Setting Forests On Fire (cosmosmagazine.com)

An anonymous reader writes: If you've been counting the ways the Australian environment is trying to kill you, you can now add "arson" to the list. According to a six-year study published in The Journal of Ethnobiology, observers have confirmed what Aboriginal rangers have been observing for years: birds of prey routinely carry burning or smouldering sticks into dry grassy areas to scare small mammals into fleeing so they can be pack-hunted more effectively. This has implications for environmental management, since the best firebreak will not protect your controlled burn from a "firehawk" determined to breach it.

Comments

Firewolves

[Anonymous Coward]

That's interesting about the avian predators. We have a ranch where we have a pack of wolves that works with us to herd and defend our livestock against their wild cousins. Nothing keeps wild wolves away from our livestock like the wolves that adopted our ranch decades ago. Some of these ranching wolves use fire. They'll feed sticks into a bonfire and they'll take hot brands out of a bonfire and carry them away. This is an issue we have to be careful of and attentive to if we have a fire going. It's cute until they have a ring of fire going around you... Man is not the only hunter with intelligence.