Nature's food chain is very magical, one thing descends one thing, in order to maintain the ecological balance of nature. Once there is an imbalance in one aspect, there is a surge in that suppression, which will bring great trouble to mankind.
In Africa, more than 1.5 billion sparrows are infested, making the locals miserable, but China has used the most indigenous methods to eliminate them.
So what exactly did these little sparrows do, to make the locals so miserable, and how did China solve it easily?
1. The red-billed Cuilia finch
This sparrow that appears in Africa is called the "red-billed quilia finch", and their body size is not very large, belonging to a type of weaver bird family under the order passeriformes, generally about 13 cm in size.
It is the most abundant bird on the earth, and it is also a well-deserved "bird king", and it also has an alias called "winged locust".
Africa is their home, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa.
With the continuous breeding of these years, their number has now exceeded 10 billion worldwide.
These red-billed quelia finches love group activities and often come together in the hundreds.
Flying together in the air, looking for food together, etc., there were 1.5 billion red-billed quelia finches in Africa at its peak, imagine so many birds gathered together.
The most distinctive feature of the red-billed Cuilia finch is the red pointed beak, which has orange-yellow feathers and pink feet, but its beak is quite eye-catching throughout its body.
The red-billed Quelia finch likes to eat similar food as other sparrows eat, some insects, crops, grass seeds, etc.
When they eat, they will act collectively, that is, the front row eats after the back row eats.
This pattern of eating makes their team very strong, repeating wave after wave until they are all full.
Therefore, collective action, migration, and eating form a unique scene in nature.
Second, the little sparrow flock beats the elephant
These red-billed quelia finches like to move in groups, and they will not attack at will.
When an attack is launched, it is generally because of its own interests.
Don't underestimate these little sparrows, if they attack, even elephants are no match.
You must know that elephants are the largest mammals in the world, and it can be said that they have few natural enemies in nature.
But these red-billed quelia finches did not pay attention to it at all, they gathered together to attack the elephants, and the elephants were also helpless.
So why are elephants beaten by these red-billed quilia finches?
This scene was filmed on March 5, 2012, when several adult elephants were leisurely drinking water in a small puddle by the lake.
At this time, the red-billed Cuilia finches also wanted to drink the water from the river, and in their opinion, elephants had violated their territory, so they directly beat the elephants.
It is important to know that the water resources of the African continent are very precious, especially fresh water, which is one of the water resources that animals rely on for survival.
When the elephants are attacked by the red-billed Quilla finch, they make a burst of calls, and their big noses are flicked, and they don't know what to do to subdue the sparrows.
Even with the tail and nose, these movements are completely futile for the huge red-billed Cuilia finches.
Unable to resist their attacks, the elephant finally chose to flee and leave.
From afar, elephants are simply too small in front of them, and the red-billed Quelia finch's collective action can be said to dominate the entire African continent.
Anyone who has travelled to Africa has felt this power, and someone has seen in the distance a tree that seems to grow very luxuriantly and has many leaves, and has not yet come to see it.
But when you walk in, you will be very surprised to see that the trees are full of red-billed quelia finches standing densely. If there are more and more sparrows standing on the tree, some will crush the branches.
Although the weight of the red-billed Quelia finch alone is only 10 grams, it cannot hold too many of them, and thousands of them stand on the treetops, the broken branches are light, and the trees will be tortured to death by them sooner or later.
Third, the harm of the red-billed Cuilia finch
The proliferation of the red-billed quelia finch not only runs rampant in the animal kingdom, but also has a serious impact on the lives of local people.
Because they are so edible, a little one eats only 18 grams a day, but 2 million together is a lot of food.
Not to mention that after breeding, there are as many as 1.5 billion red-billed quelia finches in Africa, and they eat up to 50 tons of food every day.
So many red-billed quelia finches flew up to cover the sky, and there was no grain and seed.
If left unchecked, it will certainly have a great impact on local agricultural development, and Africa's already lack of food is now even worse.
They often plunder food in groups, and although the locals are very angry, there is nothing they can do about them, so these red-billed quelia finches are also called "feathered locusts".
Everyone knows that locusts can be compared with locusts, which shows that the red-billed Quilia finch is really not a good stubble.
In addition to causing harm to food, their presence also affects the feeding of other birds, in order to grab food with them, some birds will choose to eat first before them, but the red-billed quelia finches also think so.
As a result, many food crops are caught in a wheel war between birds, and there will be little food left.
The people take food as the sky, the red-billed quelia finches grab food with humans, wheat in the dry season, and rice in the rainy season.
Extensive destruction of food has affected the lives of local people.
After sweeping the rounds, there was little left of the rice fields that had been harvested.
In order to solve this problem, the locals can be described as racking their brains.
Some people poison the ground, hoping to poison them.
However, because the fecundity of this sparrow is too strong, the poison sprinkled is simply a mosquito tickle for their huge family, and has no effect.
Although it will poison some sparrows, it will not solve the actual problem at all.
The number of red-billed quelia finches is still increasing, which is really a headache.
So people began to hunt again, but even if tens of millions of them were killed every year, they still could not solve their impact on people's lives.
Why are they so difficult to eliminate?
In the face of this large number of red-billed quelia finches, Africans can be said to have exhausted all means, but they have not reduced their numbers, and the impact on them can be said to be minimal.
So why is this the case?
First of all, because they live in a special place, generally they prefer to live in sparsely populated grassland areas.
Due to the sparse geographical location, it is conducive to their growth but not to their control. So as time goes on, these little guys come more and more.
Their ability to nest in the wild is powerful, coupled with their rapid reproduction and tenacity in life.
The red-billed Cuilia finch can reproduce for many generations every year, and generally produces 3-5 cubs in a clutch, which can be said to be very amazing.
Finally, there is a very important reason, there are no natural enemies, because the size of the group can basically compete with them.
Therefore, this species, which lacks the constraints of natural enemies, is particularly rampant on the plate of the African continent, and they can be so unscrupulous.
For the release of pesticides and poisons, these red-billed quelia finches began to mutate genetically, not only killing but not dead, but quickly evolving the function of immunity to pesticides.
These harmful substances are becoming more and more toxic to them, and they are increasing.
This flooding situation has also attracted the attention of other countries around the world, such as Malaysia, which was once released by believers from there.
Fortunately, Malaysia was able to control it in time to avoid the same status quo as the African continent.
So far, countries around the world have been cautious about this bird, and have issued bans on the entry of these sparrows.
It can be seen how harmful this bird is, which may be somewhat unfair to the red-billed quelia finch. Because they are not actually pests, but they are too numerous and lack natural enemies.
And when they are young, they are not destructive, but when they grow up, they will become lazy and start eating some seeds and food, which will have an impact on agriculture.
Fifth, use soil methods to contend with it
In the face of this status quo on the African continent, the local government is also actively seeking ways to change the status quo, otherwise it may lead to greater disasters.
When they ran out of donkey skills, they thought of China's indigenous method, that is, the way of net fishing.
In 1958, Beijing, the capital of China, 3 million people were dispatched to hunt and kill the hateful sparrows.
Some are hit with slingshots, others with nets. The effect of this net capture is still relatively obvious, and the sparrow is successfully wiped out.
But then came the "side effect", that is, the pests that live in the fields became more and more numerous after the number of sparrows decreased.
They had no natural enemies and began to wantonly harm crops, and finally affected China's grain harvest.
Africans use this method when dealing with sparrows, especially in the spring, when the seeds that have just been sown are eaten by them, and this year's harvest is really in vain.
At this time, people came up with this way of net hunting, catching and driving away, so that they could keep their crops and not affect the next year's harvest.
And the number of these red-billed quelia finches caught in the net is also large, and the locals will roast them and eat them.
But how to eat these 1.5 billion food, I really can't eat enough.
The whole people are caught, the bombs are blowing up, and people are really thinking of ways to think of them. But it still can't stop the flood of sparrows, the local people's food is still damaged, they still can't eat.
Although eating is also a method, some animals are not suitable for consumption.
Only if it is both nutritious and good can be called a delicacy, then this red-billed quelia finch is obviously not suitable for people to eat.
Epilogue:
The battle between Africans and the red-billed quelia sparrow continues, and from the perspective of African eating habits, it is obviously impractical to solve the problem by eating.
In fact, there are food chains in nature, and it may be more reliable to find a cure from the perspective of the food chain.
However, it seems to be a little difficult for the red-billed Quelia finch, and the Africans have really put a lot of effort into facing this huge flock of birds. But this horde of red-billed Quillia finches is still very arrogant.
It seems impossible to really want to destroy them all at once, because there are too many of them and their reproductive capacity is too strong. For Africa, people say that their existence is far more difficult than locusts, and if this problem is not solved, it will inevitably affect Africa's development and cast a shadow over the local population.