Michael is joined by Professor Darryl Jones, Deputy Director Environmental Futures Research Institute at Griffith University & behavioural ecologist, who has been studying magpie attacks since the 1990s and says the best way to protect magpies and maintain human safety is to catch and move the birds.

Since August 2017, the New South Wales Parks and Wildlife Service has issued licences to harm almost 600 aggressive magpies.

Professor Jones has provided guidance to councils and state government agencies across Australia with Queensland adopting his recommendations and routinely relocating problem magpies.

That advice is being ignored in NSW however.  Of the 596 licences to harm magpies, only 24 opted for the catch and release method, while the remaining 572 were used to shoot or euthanise the bird.

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