Let's start with an old saying: The world is big, there are no wonders.
The above sentence is also appropriate for wild animals, many animals have different appearances and abilities than people know, even beyond our imagination. But without exception, almost all of the characteristics and skills of wild animals that have survived to this day are the result of long-term adaptation to the environment.
What we want to know today is a particularly distinctive bird, its name is called the Owl Parrot, which also has a certain popularity on the Internet, and it is fired on the Internet every once in a while.
Why is the Owl So Special? Because it is the only parrot that cannot fly, it also has many special abilities and behaviors.
Let's take a look at the basics. The Parrot (Strigops habroptilus), a wild population found only on isolated New Zealand islands. Not only is it the only parrot that can't fly, it's also the heaviest (not the largest) of all parrots, weighing up to 1 to 4 kg.
The reason for such a large range is that the owl parrot is still one of the few birds that can accumulate a lot of body fat.
All the popular "net red" animals almost have a similar point, that is, they will be written by the dan players through looking at the picture to speak and subjective speculation, write out a variety of "cute points" or human settings of this animal, so that most ordinary netizens who do not know much about it get a lot of biased information, mistakenly thinking that this animal is really as exaggerated as the dan zi hand said.
There are too many such things, such as the "African flat-headed brother" honey badger and the "husky in the bird" whale-headed stork, and their real information is far from what is circulated on the Internet.
The same is true of the owl parrot, in the "bird set" arranged for it by the scribblers, the parrot is a bird that is stupid out of the sky: it cannot fly, it cannot protect itself, it is curious, it will only pretend to be dead in the face of danger, and it has made itself an endangered animal alive.
If you don't say that the scribblers are really talented, because many of what they say are true, but they are interspersed with self-speculation, false and real, true and false, quite clever.
Take the characteristics of the owl mentioned earlier, it is true that it cannot fly, it is true that it will pretend to be dead in the face of danger, and it is also true that it is endangered, but the article "because of stupidity to make yourself endangered" is a completely irresponsible statement.
The reason for the endangerment of the owl parrot is nothing else, or human invasion, we will elaborate later, first analyze the causes of the above characteristics of the owl parrot.
First of all, parrots can't fly, why? Simply put, because it doesn't need to.
You should know that the island of New Zealand has been isolated since ancient times, and there are many unique endemic species on the island.
New Zealand also differs from other continents in that there are very few native mammals, and there are no non-marine mammals except for a few islands with several species of bats.
In place of the mammal niches of other regions are large birds.
In terms of weight, the parrot is quite heavy, but it is a plant-feeding bird, and even if it doesn't have to worry about the large terrestrial predators on the island of New Zealand, it has to worry a little about the dangers from the sky.
The parrot does not specifically prey on its natural predators, but New Zealand history is not without animals that can threaten the survival of the owl parrot, such as several birds of prey: the New Zealand falcon, the Els Harrier (extinct), the Moss Falcon (extinct) and so on.
These birds of prey are all sky dominators who rely on visual hunting, and the owl parrot does not need to fly to the sky to touch the moldy head, but chooses to move on the ground, relying on its own developed imitation color to avoid the attention of visual predators.
Moreover, flying is also a very energy-intensive way of movement for birds, and there are no large predators in this part of New Zealand, and food is relatively abundant, there is no need to fly around, and many birds have deteriorated their ability to fly.
In addition to the parrot, New Zealand's national bird, the sandpiper (kiwi), is also flightless. While the ability to fly is degraded, the body's strength and bone firmness have also been improved, and the body can also store more fat, which is the performance of the owl's adaptation to the environment, and in that specific environment is a fairly intelligent evolutionary direction and survival strategy.
Although the parrot can't fly, it is very good at running and good at climbing trees.
Other birds can fly to the treetops to feed, while owl parrots can climb trees with a hard beak and strong feet, and they can also climb to the treetops in search of food.
Even if it falls down for a while, the parrot can flutter its wings for a soft landing - although it can't fly, but flapping its wings is still a bit of a buffer. And the owl's thick feathers and chubby body can also play a role in dampening, so even if it falls from a tree, it will not hurt.
But there's still a little bit of a mess.
When in danger, the parrot does enter a stiff state, but this is also because the animals that can threaten the survival of the parrot on the islands of New Zealand are visual predators, and it is enough to be motionless through imitation.
Originally, the parrot was a highly adapted animal in New Zealand, with no worries about food and clothing, but the invasion of humans thousands of years ago caused the parrot to suffer a catastrophe. They brought with them mammals such as cats, dogs, rats and ferrets that did not exist in New Zealand, and personally hunted owl parrots to obtain their flesh and feathers.
Owl parrots cannot fly and cannot escape the pursuit of foreign predators; owl parrots are motionless in the face of danger, but they cannot escape dogs that hunt with a sense of smell; the curiosity of owl parrots allows them to find new food, but they do not know the sinister nature of the human heart...
In this way, the parrot was almost in danger of extinction, and at least no more than fifty remained.
By the 20th century, New Zealanders were finally beginning to pay attention to the conservation of the owl:
1. Culling invasive alien species that are not originally part of New Zealand; 2. Transfer of the found owl to other nearby islands and nature reserves where there are no invasive species; 3. Name, number and monitor each parrot; 4. Use various methods to stimulate the breeding of owl parrots and protect owl eggs and chicks, and artificially breed chicks if necessary; 5. Introduce captive populations that have been stabilized into the natural ecological environment.
Although the number of parrots has increased in recent years, there are still only a few hundred, and one of the biggest problems lies in front of the parrots : the decline in genetic diversity caused by population bottlenecks.
Since the previous numbers were so small, it was inevitable that all the surviving owl parrots were more or less related. There are many drawbacks to inbreeding, and the decline in genetic diversity is one of them, and if a certain parrot has an infectious disease, it is likely to sweep the entire population.
In late April, an owl was found to have aspergillosis, and as of mid-last month, more than 30 parrots had been flown to New Zealand's major animal hospitals for examination and treatment, with 12 parrots treated at the Dunedin Wildlife Hospital in Otago alone.
If it were not for the timely discovery and decisive action, it would not be impossible for this species to completely say goodbye to us. But there may be all kinds of things in the future, and protecting the owl has always been a difficult road.
So do people who say that the parrot is endangered because "it's stupid on its own"? Doesn't conscience hurt?
hehe.