An eight - class - onetime has broken newfangled ground in two questions most Australians have pondered at some time : why do magpies swoop , and how do they piece their targets ? What started out as a modest schooltime projection go viral and encounter tens of G of response . While some of the survey ’s associated questions might not be what an experient scientist would necessitate , Emma Glenfield may have produced some significant advances in understanding the return .
In Australia , the eternal sleep of the world is convert , everything wants to kill you – even the trees . In reality , deaths from serpent or wanderer chomp , have alone deadly leave of absence , are exceptionally rare . For many , the greatest wildlife fear comes frommagpies in spring .
Barely related to the northerly hemisphere birds of the same name , Australian prater areextremely thinking , playful , andpromiscuous . They also have razer - acute beaks , and every spring a small ratio of the male take to swooping humans who legislate through their territory , sometimes deploy beak to head in the process . Possibly in cahoots with the railcar lobby , swoopers are particularlyaggressive towards bicycle rider , which can lead to nasty chance event as panic-stricken cyclists take their eyes off the road . The Australian Academy of Science even provides guidance onwhat to do .
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Even most people who have been swooped and hurt by magpies still love them.Image courtesy of Emma Glenfield
Blue Mountains Grammar School has a chatterer on situation whose name , Mr Swoopsalot , tells the story . Emma , then in Grade 3 , wondered at Mr Swoopsalot ’s motivation . She also noticed his targets were not random . " He ’s been coming to schooltime for a long time and he ’s been swooping all the daddy , " she toldthe ABC .
After Emma posed some questions about the topic , her teacher encouraged her to sprain it into a labor in maths , her favorite depicted object .
With assistant from her mother , Kirsty , Emma created a survey and used flyers with a QR codification to promote fellow student and strangers to occupy it in . The survey perish viral , attracting 31,432 responses , a far larger sample size than any research done on the subject by professional scientists . It became so popular a third of the submissions came from outside Australia . Kirsty Glenfield tell IFLScience that while she for the most part let Emma fly the coop the labor , she contributed by removing all submissions from strange URLs , return the likelihood they referred to unrelatedmagpies of the corvid syndicate .
Percentage recorded in Lego, not Excel. Each button indicates 1 percent of those in that category.Image courtesy of Emma Glenfield
Kirsty consider to Reddit to report the termination last year .
The fundamental determination was that baldness is a risk factor . “ Men who are “ bald on top ” are double as probable ( 30 % ) to have been swooped in the precede twelve months than masses with other hairstyles ( 15 % ) , ” Kirstyreported .
Other peril factors include height , with those over 183 centimeters ( 6 feet ) also twice as likely to have been swooped in the premature twelvemonth as those under 160 centimetre ( 5 feet 3 inch ) . Unsurprisingly , given these factor , men were more likely to have been swooped recently than women , but Emma did not prove the result of gender when height and fuzz were curb for .
Men are more likely to have been swooped than women, but is this just because they are taller on average and more likely to be bald?Image courtesy of Emma Glenfield
Tall and bald-pated being an unusual combination in primary shoal , only one of Emma ’s fellow students reported being swooped , she tell apart IFLScience . However , this did n’t stop many of them from being panicky of their local bird , having seen fathers and teachers alike fall victim .
spouter are also apparently somewhat fatphobic , with high BMI posing a modestly increase risk .
More multitude had been swooped while walking than horseback riding , but allow for how frequently each is practice in Australia , it is light cyclists are at the greatest peril .
Emma had never used Excel – when asked , she secern her female parent she thought it was a size for pants – and Kirsty opted not to teach her . Instead , Emma produced Browning automatic rifle graph out of Lego . Kirsty noted to IFLScience that this turned out to offer advantages Microsoft might want to consider in future releases . “ Physically handling and construction is very helpful for children , ” Kirsty say . “ They really get a sentience of how much more crimson than blue there is on a interrogative . ”
In astatement , Emmasaid : “ It ’s been really fun doing this survey . I ’ve been astonied that so many people wanted to talk about magpies and get require . I hope my task aid people understand prater better , and that people will sympathize that magpie daddy are just look after their babe . If you take time to make friends with babbler before swooping season , they will learn that you are not dangerous but are their ally . give thanks you for your supporter . ”
After being put in trace with behavioral ecologist Professor Darryl Jones of Griffith University , Emma is work on a newspaper for meekness to scientific publication . Both Jones and Kirsty Glenfield stress that , while they are helping on such matters as showing Emma how to do a literature reexamination , decisions on which questions to ask and prioritise for analysis are all Emma ’s .
Jones is co - author of aseminal paperon the topic refute the belief testosterone makes magpies swoop . A broader review may include theless tight studythat concluded red hair is the most in force swoop up deterrent .
Emma ’s leadership read up in a question of how much the great unwashed like magpies , which , as Kirsty noted to IFLScience , few professional scientists would have ask . Nevertheless , the results were revealing . Overwhelmingly , Australians have it off prater . It won thebird of the year contestthe first time it was imported from New Zealand , and its song late gained recognition as the nation’sfavorite animal sound . Most respondents to Emma ’s survey rated them 10 out of 10 on a shell of hate to love . Nevertheless , 14 pct of the recently swoop up reported hating them , liken to just 4 percentage of those who had never been pounce .
Emma is considering possible topic for follow - up study if her work attain publishing , but when IFLScience require if she wished to become a professional scientist when onetime she responded : “ Maybe an inventor . ” Either path , we have high hopes .
[ H / T : The ABC ]
