Text1

Dominique Potvin and colleagues captured five Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen) to test a new design for attaching tracking devices to birds. As the researchers fitted each magpie with a tracker attached by a small harness, they noticed some magpies without trackers pecking at another magpie's tracker until it broke off. The researchers suggest that this behavior could be evidence of magpies attempting to help another magpie without benefiting themselves.

Text 2

It can be tempting to think that animals are deliberately providing help when we see them removing trackers and other equipment from one another, especially when a species is known to exhibit other cooperative behaviors. At the same time, it can be difficult to exclude the possibility that individuals are simply interested in the equipment because of its novelty, curiously pawing or pecking at it until it detaches.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the researchers' perspective in Text 1 on the behavior of the magpies without trackers?

Question

Accepted Answer

That behavior might be adequately explained without suggesting that the magpies were attempting to assist the other magpie.

Answer

That behavior might have been due to the novelty of the magpies' captive setting rather than to the novelty of the tracker.

Answer

That behavior likely indicates that the magpies were deliberately attempting to benefit themselves by obtaining the tracker.

Answer

That behavior may not be evidence of selflessness in _Gymnorhina tibicen_ because not all the captured magpies demonstrated it.