1064
Parrot - killer sheep
Rarely it happens when sheep still exempt from the scourge of Kea, often attacked by bird animals die from his injuries, and become the food of other parrots from the pack.
Earlier, before Europeans arrived, mammals in New Zealand, but one kind and one kind rat bats were not. So, until that time, Kea was not known the taste of meat mammals. But due to lack of other feed (worms and insects), parrots began to hunt sheep. Using its powerful talons and beak, which was originally intended only for climbing on the bark of trees, the birds began to tear wounds of animals. This phenomenon is called pre-adaptation when incorporated devices perform new functions.
Often, finding the fallen sheep herders attributed her death bird. Because of this a long time kea parrots exterminated. In fact Kea sheep hunts are very rare, and the death of the sheep from predatory attacks of parrots have very tiny percentage. In 1986 he persuaded the people to stop to destroy the birds, and have become an endangered species today kea are protected.
There are cases of "assault" Kea car people, the cause of which, again, it is the desire to find something to eat in the car. In addition, parrots may be interested in the contents of the backpack tourists traveling in the habitat of these birds. Despite this, the kea parrots continue to attract people who like to watch the birds play, tumbling in the snow, or floundering in a newly thawed pools.
Another exclusive feature of these birds is that the kea - the only parrots that live and reproduce at an altitude of 1500 meters above sea level.
Among zoologists There is a joke that this parrot chose their own name. In fact, he says, out loud and clear to him - a raucous "keee-aa-aa keee, keee-aa." It is great for the purpose of recognizing and eliminating the need for bird watchers bird painfully invent some new name. True bird has not yet learned to say its scientific name, Nestor notabilis, but probably a matter of time.
Kea is widely known as the most intelligent birds in the world. However, not only intelligent kea. He's incredibly charismatic, curious, bold, ruthless and reckless. And it is - one of the few large birds in New Zealand, which has not forgotten how to fly.
If you want to see Kea, go to a crowded place. They can usually be seen in the ski resorts, alpine picnic areas and parking, partly because they find it an easy food source is straightforward, partly because that is where they can be naughty.
Open windows, tailgate and backpacks have become for them a source of endless pleasure. They blow any inadvertently discarded items of clothing or jewelry, and hide them in the crevices of the rocks, where they are sorted by size so thoroughly that it's hard to believe that they do not suffer from obsessive passion for mess.
You can not take kea plane as hand luggage, because its beak may be considered a dangerous weapon. He looks like a cross between a pair of pliers, screwdrivers and bottle openers for cans, it's incredibly powerful, and the kea well managed with it. And still there are similar Kea beak claws.
So perhaps it is not surprising that Kea are excellent car thieves. Naturally, they do not steal the cars themselves, but only because they could not reach the pedals. Instead, they steal car parts: great experience especially for them for taking off the rubber part of the "wiper" and the door locks. They do it with such skill and regularity, it's hard not to imagine how they save Circuits somewhere high in the mountains, and then collect them from their hybrid cars. Several tires and side mirrors - and it's done ...
They can open any container. A popular pastime for people living in the wilder parts of New Zealand, where almost nothing to do, - the invention of the container, which can not open the kea. Needless to say, none of this is not work, so it is clear: it is - an occupation that will provide people with hard work in the years ahead.
Another favorite place mischievous kea - holiday houses. They look out for the unwary skiers who leave doors or windows open, then dive in and torn to shreds all the mats, mattresses and pillows. They themselves also enjoy skiing, using the steep roof of a chalet in a ski slope.
In one such brigade Kea ski chalets time left at the main entrance. Whenever someone was going to go, time to alert others, and the birds started to dump snow from the roof above the door. As a result, skier found himself covered with snow from head to foot, and all the kea guffaws and cackled.
"We went to look at the Kea parking in front of the 1, 3-kilometer tunnel Homer. As soon as we stopped, somewhat surprisingly large birds surrounded our car, a hair's breadth those beggars that compulsively offer to wash the windshield, you should only stop at a traffic light.
Just like hunters with adrenaline in the nearby Queenston, kea in the parking lot were not appeased. Peering and shoving, dodging and ducking, they behaved like mad magpie, inflated with steroids. One kea even twice dived on the windshield of the neighboring car.
They were magnificent birds, mostly brown-green with bright flashes of red, yellow and orange feathers. They conquered a glance.
Bird watching for a while, we were struck by the fact that only a couple of them really badly behaved. They're hooligans, while others looked at them from a safe distance, and incited them to disgrace.
One of the thugs stole a baseball cap passenger bright red «Vauxhall Astra», and until the rightful owner of the cap, his wife and daughter chased him across the parking lot, the other kea already switched to another object. If they could, with his legs crossed, spitting through his teeth or blithely whistling, they did not apply to it. They misbehave as naturally and with such an air of innocence, as if the young urchins caught for smoking behind the bike shed.
Thief meanwhile perched on a high cliff with a baseball cap in its beak, looking at his pursuers so contemptuous look that seemed to say: "Well, what do you have now?» «
An excerpt from the book "Wild and rare: the last chance to see them." Stephen Fry and Mark Karvardayn (2009)
By the way, the kea - the only type of parrot that lives high in the mountains. For breeding, they prefer a height of 1, 5 thousand. Meters above sea level. Inhabit beech forests, forested valleys and alpine meadows, and do not forget to visit the human habitation, especially annoying tourists in hotels, camping sites and ski lodges.
But to feed the kea in the national parks is strictly prohibited. And not because they sit on a special diet, just accustomed to getting food from the hands of tourists, they consider it as their own and can easily attack the unwary consumer who dared to have a sandwich in front of them. In the wild, they feed on plants, insects and nectar of flowers. In times of famine may have fallen sheep, and even to attack the living.
Today Kea - a favorite tourist attraction that forgiving them even ripped tents and prokusannye car tires. Like rambunctious children, parrots bathe in the limelight, coming up to the amusement of the audience all the new tricks.
Source: masterok.livejournal.com
Earlier, before Europeans arrived, mammals in New Zealand, but one kind and one kind rat bats were not. So, until that time, Kea was not known the taste of meat mammals. But due to lack of other feed (worms and insects), parrots began to hunt sheep. Using its powerful talons and beak, which was originally intended only for climbing on the bark of trees, the birds began to tear wounds of animals. This phenomenon is called pre-adaptation when incorporated devices perform new functions.
Often, finding the fallen sheep herders attributed her death bird. Because of this a long time kea parrots exterminated. In fact Kea sheep hunts are very rare, and the death of the sheep from predatory attacks of parrots have very tiny percentage. In 1986 he persuaded the people to stop to destroy the birds, and have become an endangered species today kea are protected.
There are cases of "assault" Kea car people, the cause of which, again, it is the desire to find something to eat in the car. In addition, parrots may be interested in the contents of the backpack tourists traveling in the habitat of these birds. Despite this, the kea parrots continue to attract people who like to watch the birds play, tumbling in the snow, or floundering in a newly thawed pools.
Another exclusive feature of these birds is that the kea - the only parrots that live and reproduce at an altitude of 1500 meters above sea level.
Among zoologists There is a joke that this parrot chose their own name. In fact, he says, out loud and clear to him - a raucous "keee-aa-aa keee, keee-aa." It is great for the purpose of recognizing and eliminating the need for bird watchers bird painfully invent some new name. True bird has not yet learned to say its scientific name, Nestor notabilis, but probably a matter of time.
Kea is widely known as the most intelligent birds in the world. However, not only intelligent kea. He's incredibly charismatic, curious, bold, ruthless and reckless. And it is - one of the few large birds in New Zealand, which has not forgotten how to fly.
If you want to see Kea, go to a crowded place. They can usually be seen in the ski resorts, alpine picnic areas and parking, partly because they find it an easy food source is straightforward, partly because that is where they can be naughty.
Open windows, tailgate and backpacks have become for them a source of endless pleasure. They blow any inadvertently discarded items of clothing or jewelry, and hide them in the crevices of the rocks, where they are sorted by size so thoroughly that it's hard to believe that they do not suffer from obsessive passion for mess.
You can not take kea plane as hand luggage, because its beak may be considered a dangerous weapon. He looks like a cross between a pair of pliers, screwdrivers and bottle openers for cans, it's incredibly powerful, and the kea well managed with it. And still there are similar Kea beak claws.
So perhaps it is not surprising that Kea are excellent car thieves. Naturally, they do not steal the cars themselves, but only because they could not reach the pedals. Instead, they steal car parts: great experience especially for them for taking off the rubber part of the "wiper" and the door locks. They do it with such skill and regularity, it's hard not to imagine how they save Circuits somewhere high in the mountains, and then collect them from their hybrid cars. Several tires and side mirrors - and it's done ...
They can open any container. A popular pastime for people living in the wilder parts of New Zealand, where almost nothing to do, - the invention of the container, which can not open the kea. Needless to say, none of this is not work, so it is clear: it is - an occupation that will provide people with hard work in the years ahead.
Another favorite place mischievous kea - holiday houses. They look out for the unwary skiers who leave doors or windows open, then dive in and torn to shreds all the mats, mattresses and pillows. They themselves also enjoy skiing, using the steep roof of a chalet in a ski slope.
In one such brigade Kea ski chalets time left at the main entrance. Whenever someone was going to go, time to alert others, and the birds started to dump snow from the roof above the door. As a result, skier found himself covered with snow from head to foot, and all the kea guffaws and cackled.
"We went to look at the Kea parking in front of the 1, 3-kilometer tunnel Homer. As soon as we stopped, somewhat surprisingly large birds surrounded our car, a hair's breadth those beggars that compulsively offer to wash the windshield, you should only stop at a traffic light.
Just like hunters with adrenaline in the nearby Queenston, kea in the parking lot were not appeased. Peering and shoving, dodging and ducking, they behaved like mad magpie, inflated with steroids. One kea even twice dived on the windshield of the neighboring car.
They were magnificent birds, mostly brown-green with bright flashes of red, yellow and orange feathers. They conquered a glance.
Bird watching for a while, we were struck by the fact that only a couple of them really badly behaved. They're hooligans, while others looked at them from a safe distance, and incited them to disgrace.
One of the thugs stole a baseball cap passenger bright red «Vauxhall Astra», and until the rightful owner of the cap, his wife and daughter chased him across the parking lot, the other kea already switched to another object. If they could, with his legs crossed, spitting through his teeth or blithely whistling, they did not apply to it. They misbehave as naturally and with such an air of innocence, as if the young urchins caught for smoking behind the bike shed.
Thief meanwhile perched on a high cliff with a baseball cap in its beak, looking at his pursuers so contemptuous look that seemed to say: "Well, what do you have now?» «
An excerpt from the book "Wild and rare: the last chance to see them." Stephen Fry and Mark Karvardayn (2009)
By the way, the kea - the only type of parrot that lives high in the mountains. For breeding, they prefer a height of 1, 5 thousand. Meters above sea level. Inhabit beech forests, forested valleys and alpine meadows, and do not forget to visit the human habitation, especially annoying tourists in hotels, camping sites and ski lodges.
But to feed the kea in the national parks is strictly prohibited. And not because they sit on a special diet, just accustomed to getting food from the hands of tourists, they consider it as their own and can easily attack the unwary consumer who dared to have a sandwich in front of them. In the wild, they feed on plants, insects and nectar of flowers. In times of famine may have fallen sheep, and even to attack the living.
Today Kea - a favorite tourist attraction that forgiving them even ripped tents and prokusannye car tires. Like rambunctious children, parrots bathe in the limelight, coming up to the amusement of the audience all the new tricks.
Source: masterok.livejournal.com
