The first campfires marked a milestone in the evolution of our species. Mastery of the fierce element allowed lighting, heating and hunting. Aside from humans, no other creature had deliberately started a fire…until now, for apparently, some species of birds of prey in Australia have learned to control fire.
Why are these birds playing with fire? Several observers have seen the black kite and berigora falcon pick up burning branches and then take them to other places and drop them. This behavior has been going on for so long that it has already been studied. According to research published in the Journal of Ethnobiology, seems to be related to a basic instinct of these species: hunting. Fire is a danger to lizards, snakes and rodents that serve as food. For these birds, however, fire is a weapon.
The black kite and the red falcon they cause a small fire with the branches they drop. Later, they receive the small species that flee a few meters from the tree. This daring sense of strategy parallels that of humans to an astonishing level. If learning to control fire was the catalyst for our entire civilization, what will it mean for these birds?
For the moment, we can chalk it up to the unpredictable flow of evolution. It makes perfect sense that birds naturally look for ways to feed more efficiently. But the point that stands out is the intelligence that these species have been capable of developing. Until recently, the idea of a animal consciousness was not on the horizon. Surely this is due, more than anything, to our lack of attention.
Several animals have an impressive and complex sensitivity that covers all areas of human consciousness: communication, social ties, the ability to calculate. If these birds show us anything, it is that humans are not -and will not be- the only ones in constant transformation.
* Sources
Mark Bonta, Robert Gosford, Dick Eussen, Nathan Ferguson, Erana Loveless, and Maxwell Witwer, «Intentional Fire-Spreading by «Firehawk» Raptors in Northern Australia,» Journal of Ethnobiology 37(4), (1 December 2017). https://doi.org/10.2993/0278-0771-37.4.700
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