Do you remember that we once saw a set of GIFs like this on the Internet:
Many people wonder, what kind of animal is this? Why do they behave this way? Is this a normal behavior? There are even netizens who commented: "In this regard, the editor said...
This is certainly not possible! In nature, no creature has this behavior, and this GIF is obviously a "ghost animal version" produced by netizens through post-production. In fact, the prototype of the picture is a famous bird: the kiwi.
Today Xiaobian will take you to explore: what a magical species the Kiwi is.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > first glimpse of the kiwi bird: one of the oldest extant species that originated at the same time as dinosaurs</h1>
The scientific name of the kiwi is kiwi, the English name is kiwi, and the English of kiwi is a word, so people will affectionately call the kiwi "running kiwi". The origin of the name Kiwi is because their call is pronounced "keewee".
Wild kiwis are only found on the new Zealand mainland, but are currently endangered. Like platypus, it is one of the oldest living creatures in existence: the kiwi's origins date back to the age of the dinosaurs 150 million years ago.
Like our common ostriches and emus, kiwis belong to the flat-breasted class of birds (to be precise, kiwi birds are wingless birds), and they are flightless birds. This bird may be unfamiliar to others, but it means a lot to the people of New Zealand.
First of all, kiwi birds are endemic to New Zealand and have lived on the new continent since ancient times.
Second, New Zealanders are very fond of kiwis, not only placing signs on the pavement "Watch out for kiwis" to protect them, but also affectionately calling themselves "I'm a kiwi" instead of "I'm a New Zealander". The status of the Kiwi in New Zealand is no less than that of the panda in the eyes of the Chinese people, so it is listed as the national bird of New Zealand.
There are also rumors that New Zealand once wanted to mark the shape of a kiwi on the flag, but in the end this idea did not come true.
Although it did not appear on the flag, New Zealand's currency has a place in the currency of several birds.
There are 5 subspecies of the Kiwi in New Zealand, namely:
North Island Brown Kiwi (Apteryx mantelli)
Austronesian Brown Kiwi tokoeka (A. australis）
Ogarito Kivi rowi (A. rowi）
Big Spot Kiwi great spotted kiwi(A. haastii）
Little spotted kiwi(A. owenii）
In general, the size of the adult bird of the North Brown Island kiwi is the same as that of the chicken, but the height and weight of the kiwi bird are larger than the chicken because of the different breeds, between 0.9 kg and 5 kg, the height is 35-63 cm, and the female will be larger than the male individual. The kiwi has divergent hard hairs at the base of its beak, and its nose grows at the tip of the beak. Kiwis have a monogamous lifestyle, and they will have only one mate in their lifetime.
And they don't go forward like in the opening picture, one after the other, they walk like this:
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > does a kiwi have wings? </h1>
When you first see a kiwi, you know it's a flightless bird. But if you think it has no wings, you're wrong: although it has degenerated to the point where it has lost all its role, the kiwi does have wings. Their wings look like this... That's right, you can't see it: they're so small that everyone will think it has no wings.
So the kiwi is classified into a classification that is exclusive to it: wingless. At this time, there are only one kind of birds. But here we have a misconception: people think that wingless birds have no wings. In fact, wingless birds are severely degraded in their wings, leaving only traces. Note: There are traces! It's not completely wingless.
If we are to ask why the kiwi bird has experienced such severe degradation, it needs to start from the time when the Continental European Plate was not moving tens of millions of years ago.
80 million years ago, New Zealand was an independent continent isolated by the oceans, far from all other continents. At that time, New Zealand arrived, but there were no carnivores, let alone wolves and dogs, not even pigs, cattle and sheep.
The blessed environment makes the New Zealand continent a paradise for birds – without the shackles of predators, many birds have degenerated their wings. As a result, wingless birds were born, but unfortunately, by now, wingless birds except kiwi birds have all become extinct. Let's take a look at one of the amazing wingless birds that once existed: the giant moa (skeleton model) that is nearly 4 meters tall.
With the movement of the continental plate, the continents gradually moved closer to New Zealand, and then the Maori migrated to New Zealand to settle, the British entered the colony in large numbers, cats and dogs and other carnivores began to enter the New Zealand continent, so that the wingless birds without the ability to fly began a large-scale extinction road, and until now, only the kiwi bird existed.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > another reason why kiwis are difficult to breed: they have eggs that do not match their size</h1>
Carnivores are the biggest killer of kiwis, and in addition to this reason that the kiwi is almost extinct, there is also an important reason for the eggs of kiwis, which are a bit too big for their size! You can hardly believe it: one of their eggs weighs 30% of the mother bird's body weight.
The northern brown kiwi, which lays the most eggs, lays 2-3 nests per year, 2 eggs at a time, and only successfully breeds 2-3 young birds a year. In order for the body to be able to withstand such a huge egg (about half a kilogram), the mother bird should eat 3-5 times the usual diet, and change her walking posture to support her legs as wide as her stomach. It can be said that it is very hard.
But pregnancy is hard, and when the eggs are hatched, the bird father and the bird mother participate together, so the kiwi are also a very competent husband: they not only have a partner from beginning to end, but also participate in the egg incubation! The people of New Zealand affectionately call the good husbands of women: "Kiwi husband", which means Kiwi husband.
So we can imagine: every little kiwi bird that is born is not easy!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > protect kiwi birds! New Zealand punches hard</h1>
In view of the fact that the survival status of kiwi birds is really worrying, and the New Zealand people are very fond of this bird from the bottom of their hearts, so New Zealand has made a heavy attack, not only to build a kiwi bird conservation institution that is no less than the breeding of giant pandas, and to introduce a sound kiwi protection regulations, but also to take "curfew" measures for resident cats!
New Zealand rules: Cats from all residents are forbidden to go out at night.
This is a very necessary measure: because free-range and stray cats are the biggest killers of birds in every country. But in fact, this policy was issued a little late: because when this policy was issued, there were almost no longer kiwi birds in the wild. The cat wants to eat it, but can't eat it... The kiwi has been eaten almost by stray cats.
As the only remaining wingless bird, as well as one of the oldest species on earth, the kiwi is destined to be a valuable legacy left to us by geography and biology, and the genetic study of the kiwi will reveal the true face of the earth hundreds of millions of years ago for us to some extent.
Therefore: the protection of existing species is not only a respect for nature, but also a respect for human history.
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