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Text: Vientiane hardcore
Edited by Vientiane hardcore
«——【Preamble】】 ——»
"Tyrannosaurus rex among birds", "king of birds", "prehistoric giant bird", "crocodile killer" ...... When the whalehead stork was not yet famous, these domineering nicknames all showed that it was a fierce and powerful bird.
But since the whalehead stork in the zoo has been in all its forms, and its prestige has been lost, is it still the giant bird that can bite a crocodile to death?
In a safari park in the United States, a whale-headed stork strode forward with its head held high, and a spot-breasted tree duck appeared in front of it.
Since then, it has gone forever on the road of pretending to be stupid and cute, eating grass, plucking feathers, and bowing very skillfully, is the real whalehead stork really like this?
«【The most polite "dumb bird"·]»
The Whale Stork's goofy attributes almost all come from its peculiar appearance and some incomprehensible strange behavior.
Its most prominent thing is its big head, and it is even the bird with the largest head in the world, which makes the whale stork's aura soar to two meters eight in an instant.
The whalehead stork's signature physical feature is undoubtedly its wide, large beak, which resembles a shoe carved out of wood invented by the Dutch, with at least a size 44, hence the nickname "Father of Shoes".
One of its signature gestures is bowing, which is why it is known as the most polite bird, and the precedent for bowing was a whale-headed stork at the African Zoo.
It was a whalehead stork that was saved by a wildfire, and when it arrived at the zoo, it bowed to a person, and over time, a tacit understanding was reached between the visitor and the whalehead stork, bowing to each other.
Later, people also deliberately trained whalehead storks for this special behavior, and some whalehead storks will pluck their feathers and give them to humans, but these behaviors will not appear in wild whalehead storks.
But whether bred in captivity or in the wild, the whalehead stork is a deep bird that is good at "thinking" most of the time, and it is extremely patient, and can simply stand there for hours without moving.
Even on a rainy day, when the keeper called it back, it turned a deaf ear and stood stupidly in the rain, not knowing how to hide from the rain.
If it weren't for the fact that its eyes blink from time to time, others would have thought it was a sculpture or a specimen.
But the reason why the whalehead stork is so silent is not because it is deaf, but because it has a problem with its vocal cords, and it usually does not chirp like other birds.
It only makes a sound when its mouth opens and closes, colliding up and down.
In fact, if the whalehead stork stands still and is quite frightening, its body length is about 1.2 meters, which is considered the same size among birds.
When it spreads its wings, the width of its body can reach two meters and six at its widest, and the temperament of a "prehistoric giant bird" is immediately born.
In fact, it is called the "prehistoric giant bird" not only because of its size, but also because it has a bit of a relationship with dinosaurs, and its appearance is the most dinosaur-like bird now, so some people guess that the whalehead stork is the descendant of ancient dinosaurs.
Don't look at it to look like it's not easy to mess with, but its whole body relies on the fluffy feathers on its body to support the scene, and such a big whalehead stork weighs less than fifteen pounds.
«—[Crocodile Killer]—»
Most of these "cute" behaviors occur in the captive whalehead storks in zoos, which are actually very dangerous animals in the wild.
Their beaks are very aggressive, with a hook-like tip that allows them to pierce the skin of their prey quickly and aggressively as they hunt.
But when eating, it is more difficult, their large mouths will always "leak", and sometimes a fish may not be able to eat it after eating it several times, and often fall to the ground.
In the whalehead stork's habitat, the most abundant food is the lungfish, which is also the whale's favorite food.
Crocodiles are not obligatory for whalehead storks, and only when food is scarce, it will focus on these crocodiles, but only for juvenile crocodiles.
After all, the Nile crocodile that lives most in Africa is the second largest crocodile, and the whalehead stork does not dare to provoke them, but will only sneak attack their cubs.
Because the Nile crocodile is a very "irresponsible" crocodile, after the cubs are born, they will completely abandon and completely free-range, and they are easily targeted by whalehead storks.
The whalehead stork hunts very casually, whether it can eat or not depends on the will of God, it usually chooses a place, and then it will stand still, its eyes fixed on the acre and third of the land in front of it, as if asleep.
If the prey appears, the whalehead stork is like a beast that has suddenly awakened, plunging headlong into the water and holding the prey up with its large mouth.
If it is in the mud, it will stick its mouth into the prey's burrow and dig hard, and then gouge the prey out with its mouth.
When hunting, it also activates its defenses, with an instantaneous membrane on its eyeball, which temporarily obscures its eyes whenever its mouth reaches into the water to hunt, avoiding injury.
They also have long legs that help them walk in the wet, muddy swamps, so why wouldn't they get stuck in them?
This is mainly due to the fact that they have a pair of large wings, and although they are not very capable of flying, they have auxiliary functions, and when walking in the swamp, they will flapp their large wings to reduce their weight and not let themselves get stuck in the mud.
Adult whalehead storks are very combative, and they are almost at the top of the food chain within the range of their habitat.
«【Endangered African "Giant Panda"]»
Whalehead storks are indigenous to the continent, mainly found in the Nile River basin and tropical swamps of eastern Africa, and the risk to their survival has increased exponentially since they became widely known.
By 2002, there were only 8,000 whalehead storks in the world, and the biggest threat they face is human poaching, followed by habitat loss, which puts their populations at risk.
Because most of them only have populations in Africa, they are regionally unique, and their numbers are still very scarce, so they are also known as the "giant pandas" in Africa.
Coupled with the fact that the whalehead storks themselves are not very reproductive, they don't seem to be very keen on breeding offspring.
Although the whalehead stork is very "cute", it is a very withdrawn creature, never lives in groups, only the difference between single and married, one or a pair of whalehead storks will dominate an area of about three square kilometers.
They spend a lot of time building their nests before the breeding season, they will bring in all kinds of aquatic plants, and the leaves will build a nest about one meter in shallow water, and then they will reproduce in it.
Whalehead storks can lay one to three eggs at a time, with an incubation period of about 30 days, and after the cubs are born, the whalehead stork parents will make a selection, and usually, they will leave only one of the strongest cubs.
During the process of hatching and raising their offspring, the whalehead stork couple alternates and takes care of the family together.
The pups need to be fed by their parents for about four months, and in the first three months, the young birds cannot fly and can only rely on their parents to feed.
Adult whalehead storks store their food in their sacs when they go out to feed, and when they return, they regurgitate the food and stuff it into the mouths of their youngsters.
The next month the young birds begin to try to fly, learn hunting and survival skills, and still rely on their parents to feed them.
Young birds take four to five years to grow before they can reproduce again, and they are still monogamous, which causes their population to grow very slowly.
Due to multiple reasons, the whalehead stork population has become precarious, and even if people are trying to breed captively, the population in the wild is still decreasing, and further efforts are needed to protect the whalehead stork.
Reference:
The Paper "The Cute Whale Head Stork Becomes Popular on the Internet, Expert: This Bird is Dangerous, Tyrannosaurus Rex Among Birds Is More Appropriate", 2021-6-8
Beijing Science Center, "What kind of bird is the whalehead stork?", 2019-4-25
"I heard that you are all laughing at the whale-headed stork for being too "stupid and cute" and not good at hunting?", 2017-9-11