Ethnobiologists confirm Aboriginal knowledge of firehawks

January 15, 2018 1:14 PM

What Do Wild Animals Do in a Wildfire? When big blazes spark and spread, some species escape, some perish—and some even thrive, as written by Sarah Zielinski for National Geographic. In Australia, Black Kite (Milvus migrans), Whistling Kite (Haliastur sphenurus), and Brown Falcon (Falco berigora) have been documented intentionally spreading fire to drive out prey, recently confirming what Aboriginal people have talked about for thousands of years.

Aboriginal Australians have long known that some raptors carry burning sticks to start or spread fires. Douglas Lockwood, in writing about the life of Waipuldanya (also known as Phillip Roberts) captured a reference to such firehawks (Google books snippet) in 1962. (See more on I, the Aboriginal in this post from The Australian Legend blog.)

Bob Gosford, an Australian indigenous-rights lawyer and ornithologist, was interested in that reference and sought to document Aboriginal knowledge. He and his colleagues received reports of both solo and cooperative attempts, often successful, to spread wildfires intentionally via single-occasion or repeated transport of burning sticks in talons or beaks (report abstract), but were unable to document occurrences themselves. And as noted in by Justine E. Hausheer for the Nature Conservancy, they also gathered a substantial number accounts from Aboriginal peoples, however, the team is waiting to publish those accounts until they can do so in a way that respects ownership and the protection of traditional knowledge.

posted by filthy light thief (17 comments total)

“I think we're in real trouble. I don't know how this started or why, but I know it's here and we'd be crazy to ignore it... The bird war, the bird attack, plague - call it what you like. They're amassing out there someplace and they'll be back. You can count on it...”

~ The Birds
posted by Fizz at 1:23 PM on January 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

I was going to say we should just let loose some rhinoceros but after some quick googling I was disappointed to find that their fire stomping abilities are strictly mythical.

This is fascinating though, thanks filthy light thief
posted by Start with Dessert at 1:40 PM on January 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

I was going to say we should just let loose some rhinoceros but after some quick googling I was disappointed to find that their fire stomping abilities are strictly mythical.

Sounds like somebody never heard There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fire-Wielding Raptor
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:43 PM on January 15, 2018 [14 favorites]

Australian fauna gonna Australian fauna. Seriously, what is it with the animals there not being content with their normal lethality?
posted by NoxAeternum at 2:37 PM on January 15, 2018 [11 favorites]

I'm pretty sure these birds have just seen the news lately, and decided that it was just time to burn the world.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 3:16 PM on January 15, 2018 [8 favorites]

I need to find the links, but there's work that indicates that Australian aboriginal lore, in particular the things that are recited as part of the Song Lines, was a gigantic exercise in memorization, using the entire continent as a memory palace. Since you can only put so much information in a system like that, you have an incentive to make sure all of it is true (if allegorical) and directly pertinent to surviving in a hostile continent. Nothing in it should be dismissed.
posted by ocschwar at 3:16 PM on January 15, 2018 [26 favorites]

This dovetails nicely with my own theory that birds are assholes.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 3:22 PM on January 15, 2018 [4 favorites]

So Australia doesn't have enough poisonous or otherwise deadly species that they have to add arson as well?
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 3:24 PM on January 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

Since you can only put so much information in a system like that, you have an incentive to make sure all of it is true (if allegorical) and directly pertinent to surviving in a hostile continent. Nothing in it should be dismissed.

Yeah, indigenous knowledge is routinely dismissed out of hand until a colonizer comes along and "proves" it. I've talked to people here in California who resent the fact that it takes a white person's account of something for it to be taken seriously. There's a story I heard of a man who met Europeans for the first time and died of fright, right on the spot. Native people said it was a true story. Non-Native scholars said it was an allegory, until someone found a journal written by one of the Europeans that mentioned a Native man dropping dead on the spot. Of course, then people's minds were blown that accurate history could be passed down orally.

So with indigenous knowledge, everything is a myth until it's proven true, because it can't be taken seriously on its own merits. I'm not surprised that the Aboriginals were correct, but I'm frustrated that this is what it takes to believe them.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 4:47 PM on January 15, 2018 [21 favorites]

Glad they were able to secure a lawyer well versed in bird law.
posted by sweetmarie at 5:36 PM on January 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

There's a story I heard of a man who met Europeans for the first time and died of fright, right on the spot. Native people said it was a true story. Non-Native scholars said it was an allegory, until someone found a journal written by one of the Europeans that mentioned a Native man dropping dead on the spot. Of course, then people's minds were blown that accurate history could be passed down orally.

See, I wouldn't have believed the story if I had read it in the journal, because if there's one thing I know about colonizers, it's that they're always making up crazy stories about the natives.
posted by Faint of Butt at 6:00 PM on January 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

"So Australia doesn't have enough poisonous or otherwise deadly species..."
Can we please stop talking about the cricket?!
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 6:53 PM on January 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

There's this thing birds do, called anting, in which they annoint themselves with odoriferous substances including, sometimes, lit cigarette butts. The late great fantasy author Avram Davidson speculated that this might have been the origin of the myth of the Phoenix: people saw birds flying off with a smoky stick or even possibly observed a bird setting a fire that way. The behaviour in the FPP may or may not be related to anting, but it if it can be found in African or Middle Eastern birds it would certainly be a more direct way of explaining the myth.
posted by Joe in Australia at 8:08 PM on January 15, 2018 [3 favorites]

using the entire continent as a memory palace.

Oh c'mon, that's preposterous.
posted by wilful at 4:44 AM on January 16, 2018

I really hope stories like this lead to more scientists taking indigenous knowledge seriously.
posted by tobascodagama at 7:21 AM on January 16, 2018

Australian fauna gonna Australian fauna. Seriously, what is it with the animals there not being content with their normal lethality?

I think you're exaggerating a little. Not all Australian birds are like the Hooded Derbythrasher, which has been observed using automatic rifles and grenade launchers to flush out prey.
posted by happyroach at 8:53 AM on January 16, 2018

(They also gathered a substantial number accounts from Aboriginal peoples, however, the team is waiting to publish those accounts until they can do so in a way that respects ownership and the protection of traditional knowledge.)

This is good.
posted by ZakDaddy at 10:53 AM on January 16, 2018 [2 favorites]