Smart Animals
14 | April• 2018
You could earn cash by telling us
about the antics of unique pets or
wildlife.Turntopage5for details
on how to contribute.‘Maggie’ had
some diiculty
walking, so
obviously the
ishing line
had been there
for a while. We
placed a dish of
water nearby and
she stayed around
for a few days, eating
the meat we gave her and
getting stronger.
Each day we saw an improvement
in her walking ability. Although she
initially seemed very content to sit
on a branch in one of our trees, after
a week, she inally lew away home
to nearby bushland.
We believe the bird ‘knew’ us from
a previous time. A while back we had
fed a pair of magpies, and maybe
she had once been one of their
young. Needless to say, we were very
pleased with the outcome.LIFE LINE
CAROLE PRITCHARD
My husband
Ron and I live
on an acre of
ground adjoining
bushland in
Queensland. We
are magpie lovers
and feed some of
these birds once a day.
A couple of years ago,
after returning home from
the supermarket, we drove into our
garage and opened the door into the
house. On returning to the rear of
the car to unload the shopping, we
saw a magpie standing about a metre
away.Itshowednofearofusatall
and stood there as if it knew that we
could help it.
here was a lot of ishing line
tangled around one of its legs. I
called out to Ron, who by now was
upstairs, to bring a little bit of meat.
While I hand fed the magpie, my
husband managed to grab hold of it.
I raced upstairs to fetch a pair of my
small embroidery scissors and was
able to painstakingly snip the twisted
ishing line away.
Some solutions to animal problems work, but others don’t