Birds battle for bragging rights
Those of us who have spent a lifetime or the best part of a lifetime playing sport or being involved in sporting activity, have indulged ourselves for a variety of reasons.
Some are imbued with that competitive edge, others seem to lack that stimulus. Those of us with that competitive instinct find It drives us to be involved and of course, to compete whether it be as part of a team or as individuals. Each to his or her own. Some are happier as individuals whereas others fit seamlessly into the team ethos.
Yet even as part of a team, individual competitiveness is a driving force. Being involved in sporting activity is part of life’s training. It requires a certain degree of physical fitness. It needs selfdiscipline and it helps develop social skills, all of which translate to important characteristics in later life.
In essence, animals and even birds are no different. For some of them the competitiveness that will drive them to face all sorts of challenges just to stay alive is learned at an early stage of their lives. For example, anyone who has done any meaningful badger watching will be aware of the importance of play to badger cubs.
Down the years, I have avidly watched badgers and have therefore seen the cubs romp and playfight for hours on end. I was so enthusiastic about my local badgers that I watched them incessantly and was thus able to follow their lives and learn just how the cubs grew up.
Their play-fighting established a pecking order that would be with them for the entirety of their lives. There are winners and losers and these ranks are recognised early in their lives through that play as a result of which, high or low and presumably, future status within the group is established. For example, I remember watching a family of three cubs on the May evening when they first emerged from the darkness of the parental sett. On that occasion there was no playing, just a tenseness caused by the totally new experience of seeing and being in the wider world for the very first time.
Within days, however, they were playing with gay abandon and much noise, chasing round after each other and challenging each other in a crazy game of king of the castle. Soon, it became clear that one of them was very competitive and constantly the winner in this contest. He – I think it was a young boar – was the permanent king of that particular castle and even in those very young days, he was learning his place in the world, especially in relationship to his siblings.
Incidentally, the sett was located in a strip of woodland behind a popular guest house and as days shortened and autumn replaced summer, it was lit up by the approaching headlights of visiting cars. Thus, even as summer had passed and autumn’s darkness descended, I was able to watch those same badgers by torchlight because they had got used to operating in the glow of headlights.
I have also watched fox cubs similarly indulge in play-fighting and even on one occasion watched badger cubs and fox cubs romp together where a pair of foxes had taken over an outlying section of a badger sett. This play is just as important to fox cubs as it is to badger cubs and they too eventually form a pecking order among the siblings, the status then established presumably carried on into adulthood. All the time they are playing, they are developing the skills that will see them through their entire lives.
Perhaps it comes as no surprise that such ‘advanced’ animals also play. Those who have the company of dogs or cats, will, I’m sure, be familiar with the way puppies and kittens play, either with each other given the chance or with us.
Play is very much a part of their upbringing just as it is for fox and badger cubs. It prepares them for the rigours of the life they must lead and sets them up for the future. This kind of play is a learning process and as much a part of the growing period in people as it is with animals.
However, we don’t associate play in the same way with birds. Yet every autumn and winter I see plenty of evidence of play in birds when autumnal and winter winds blow. It is then that hordes of rooks and jackdaws indulge in games of aerial tag and much more.
We may view with a certain amount of disdain, members of the crow clan, but believe me these are birds of high intelligence and indeed that high IQ may well be exhibited in their wild play on such occasions.
Sometimes they chase each other and at times, appear to compete with one another to perform the most outlandish examples of spectacular aerial antics, diving, soaring – all at breakneck speed. Rooks and jackdaws are clearly very skilled flyers.
All this is also part of play and is probably a constant rehearsal of acrobatic flying that on occasions may get the birds out of trouble with predators. Yet I cannot help but think these antics provide an atmosphere of sheer pleasure too.
Perhaps they do it because they enjoy it and indeed it must be an enjoyable experience to challenge the elements with such verve, skill and speed.
Avian play may not seem to be likely yet other incidents have served to provide further food for thought.
As I recently reported, a pair of magpies have this summer produced a brood of four youngsters in a neighbour’s garden which we are seeing quite a lot of in the vicinity of our bird-table.
I have also reported on the regular presence of a cock pheasant with a distinct limp which we have named ‘Hopalong’ who recently lost his tail feathers but whether or not he is therefore slow to get into the air because of his gammy leg, I do not know but he has perhaps been grabbed by a dog or even a fox and lost his tail.
Now he has been joined by an attractive hen pheasant, which is also coming regularly to feed on the fragments of food from below our bird-table and she is complete in that she has a tail! Indeed, it is her tail that has been a focus for attention.
As she potters around, one of the magpies is repeatedly following her. It is the pheasant’s tail that seems to be the attraction. The magpie stalks behind the pheasant and from time to time tweaks her tail before hastily retreating, not just once but repeatedly. Is this a sign of sheer mischievousness on the part of the magpie? Is it just playing?
The only comparison I can strike comes from one of the many books written during the last century by Frances Pitt, a naturalist of great experience. In one of her many books she recounts the story of her two captive ravens which apparently wandered freely around her garden. The ravens had a game which they repeatedly played on one of Miss Pitt’s cats. The first raven would face the cat and taunt it whilst the other would sidle behind the cat and tweak its tail.
Immediately, the cat would wheel around to face its tormentor at which point the first raven would then tweak the cat’s tail.
This mischief was repeated until the poor cat eventually sloped off in disgust and much affronted after it had ended up virtually going round and round in circles!
So, it seems, birds too can play. At least that seems to be the case as far as the crow clan are concerned.
All the research tells us that crows are well ahead of the game when it comes to intelligence - far ahead of other avian species.
However just a few years ago, I once witnessed a buzzard flying above a seashore, repeatedly dropping a stone and diving to catch it time and time again. It must have been playing! There’s no other explanation. Perhaps whilst they are playing, they are experiencing their own capabilities?