AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Human shoebill stork size2/18/2023 ![]() ![]() The bird’s bill, which has the same curvature of the footwear for which it is named, is also exceedingly large. “This means that when a shoebill spreads its wings, it has a bigger wingspan than Shaquille O’Neal (Wingspan of 7.5 feet),” Uganda Safari Experts notes. ![]() Their average height rivals that of children, from 3.5 feet to 4.6 feet, while their wingspan is twice as long as that. “When there’s nothing but lungfish or crocodile left, the Shoebill will give it a quick decapitation with the sharp edges of the bill.” (Sam DCruz/Shutterstock)Īs if this weren’t all impressive enough, the shoebill’s massive size makes its countenance even more formidable. “Clamping down on its prey, the bird will start to swing its massive head back and forth, tipping out whatever stuff it doesn’t want to eat,” the Audubon society notes. Shoebill storks are famous for making themselves like “statues,” standing completely immobile for long periods of time with their feet submerged in the water, before finally striking with their powerful bill. Their hunting behavior is one of the species’s most notable traits, next to their giant bills. The birds need shallow, wet areas with vegetation that provide good habitat for their favorite prey: fish and small reptiles. The shoebill stork’s primary habitat is in the wetlands of central Africa, stretching from Sudan in the north all the way to Zambia in the south. In fact, along with large-sized fish, these swamp-hunting storks have been known to devour snakes, freshwater eels, Nile monitor lizards, and, most shockingly, even baby Nile crocodiles. In addition to their bizarre appearance, shoebill storks are no pushovers. Other names for the strange-looking creature include the “whalehead” and the “whaleheaded stork,” giving an idea of just how odd this prehistoric-looking bird is. This African bird’s enormous size (it stands up to 5 feet tall) and huge shoe-shaped bill have led it to be described as the “most terrifying bird in the world” by the Audubon Society. Geological Survey.While nature never ceases to surprise us with its infinite variations, the shoebill stork (Balaeniceps rex) is a creature whose looks are wilder than most. NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Shoebill numbers are declining, and global populations of the birds are thought to range from 5,000 to 8,000, with the largest populations in the Sudd wetlands of South Sudan. The birds face pressures from development, poaching, and fires. Shoebills are listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species. In addition to the fish and the birds, the area is frequented by elephants, lechwe, hippopotamuses, and several other types of wildlife. About 400 bird species and 80 species of fish live in the wetlands, including dozens that are threatened or endangered. The Bangweulu wetlands have been designated as a wetland of international importance by the Ramsar Convention and as an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) by BirdLife International. In the local Bemba language, bangweulu means “where the water sky meets the sky.” It's these mirror-like floodplains, where distinguishing between sky and water can be difficult, that give the place its name. Beyond these are expansive floodplains that fill with water seasonally. Several towns are located along the shores of the lake, and swamps are located immediately to the south and east. Looking down from space, a group of mostly parallel sandy ridges form a series of islands within the lake. The Bangweulu wetlands-which include a shallow lake, several rivers, and flooded grasslands and swamps-spread across a flat area about the size of Connecticut. On May 15, 2020, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this natural-color image of one such ecosystem in northern Zambia. This forces prey to the surface to breathe, giving shoebills an opportunity to strike. If decaying vegetation accumulates quickly on the bottom or temperatures change in unfavorable ways, water can quickly become depleted in oxygen. The enormous birds-some standing up to 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall, with 2.5-meter wingspans-prefer to live near slow flowing and muddy freshwater full of vegetation. The dinosaur-like shoebill is a wading bird that can stand motionless for hours before using its wide bill and explosive bursts to snap up lungfish, bichir, tilapia, eels, monitor lizards, and even baby crocodiles. For prey, however, there is little that is funny about these birds. With oversized bills, gangly legs, and shaggy neck feathers, there is something vaguely cartoonish about the African shoebill (Balaeniceps rex). ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |