Photo: Vivek Doshi/Unsplash.
A magpie. Magpies in Australia are part of the Artamidae family.
Covid may have made us more nervous about the interaction between humans and wild animals, but who can resist all the adorable videos suggesting it can work? Here’s what happened when a magpie in Australia got a bit too much attention on social media.
Annabelle Timsit writes at the Washington Post, “Peggy and Molly are typical best friends. They hang out. Play. Sunbathe. But in one important way, they are an unusual pair: Peggy is a dog, and Molly is a magpie.
“A couple in Queensland, Australia, rescued Molly in 2020 after she fell from a nest. The magpie bonded with their Staffordshire terrier, Peggy, and became somewhat of a social media celebrity.
“Through their Instagram account @peggyandmolly, the couple, Juliette Wells and Reece Mortensen, chronicle the dog and magpie’s daily adventures for 813,000 followers. …
“But Peggy and Molly’s rising popularity also attracted the attention of wildlife authorities. The Department of Environment, Science and Innovation (DESI) successfully demanded that Molly be surrendered into its care after receiving complaints from members of the public, saying that Wells and Mortensen did not have the proper permits to look after a wild bird.
“Now, Peggy and Molly could soon be reunited — after fans called for Molly to be sent back, and Queensland Premier Steven Miles said Tuesday that Wells and Mortensen can ‘secure the appropriate license’ to care for the magpie. … The update from Miles, who is the head of government in the northeastern Australian state, comes after Wells and Mortensen mounted a public campaign to regain care of Molly. …
“After the public outcry, Miles had said that wildlife authorities stood ‘ready to train Molly’s parents to be wildlife caregivers, to get them the right certification, so Molly can be reunited with her family.’ …
“Peggy and Molly are the latest animals to get caught up in tensions between pet owners and wildlife authorities. Social media videos of animals exhibiting unusual or humanlike behavior are growing in popularity, but experts say many wild animals are not meant to live in domesticated settings, and they have warned about risks to the animals and their owners because of the spread of disease.
“Wells said she was walking outside in the fall of 2020 when she came across a baby magpie that had fallen from its nest. She rescued it from ‘certain death,’ she said, and brought the magpie home.
“ ‘Peggy needed something to nurture and Molly needed nurturing,’ says a website about their story, and the duo became ‘besties.’
“About a year later, Peggy had five puppies. Molly ‘became very close to all’ of them, and ‘now has an incredible bond’ with one of them, named Ruby, according to the website.
“In the past 3½ years, near-daily videos posted on the @peggyandmolly Instagram account have shown Molly, Peggy and Ruby sharing toys and napping next to each other in the sun — and suggest that the magpie even learned to imitate Peggy and Ruby’s bark. In another video, Molly puts a wing over its friend on a dog bed. …
“Australian authorities have warned the public that some magpies can be ‘aggressive towards people’ when defending their nests, particularly during what’s known as ‘magpie swooping season,’ typically between July and November. Videos of Australians being chased by magpies have gone viral, and the Queensland government has warned the public to ‘stay safe from swooping magpies.’ ”
Molly the Magpie returned home on April 15, according to @SevenJMiles on the bird site.
More at the Post, here.
PS. If you see two Blue-Throated Piping Guans on the loose (Monster and Chip), they escaped from Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence during a recent storm. Read here.
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
Hurrah that this family has become trained to be official wildlife caregivers. I visited their IG account and see that they have also helped raise a baby kookaburra kingfisher who has returned to the wild but still visits them from time to time…
That sounds like the perfect result: returning to the wild but staying friends!
Very happy for the happy ending to this. I understand the general principles–people shouldn’t just seize animals from the wild and attempt to keep them as pets–but that’s not what happened here. It sounds like Molly was perfectly well adjusted to life with the family. It never hurts to have the proper training for interacting with wild animals and for rehabilitating them, so I’m glad the family got it, but I also feel as if Molly would have been perfectly fine with them without being taken away. (I haven’t seen the Instagram; I’m going only on what you’ve shared here, but she was manifestly happy and healthy and not harming anyone.)
I know. If anyone did any seizing, I’d say it was the “authorities”!
Exactly!