Daily Zoo Animal: #15, Kea

[urbpan]

Kea Nestor notablis

In the chilly mists of the highlands of New Zealand's South Island lives what is perhaps the world's strangest parrot. Having evolved in the absence of mammalian predators, the kea has a reputation for being curious and mischievous, pulling windshield wipers and weather stripping off of cars. They are omnivorous opportunists, feeding on more than 100 species of plants, including the roots of some, as well as insects, snails, and carrion. Famously, it was discovered that they even occasionally gouge out hunks of flesh from weakened sheep. Between one to five thousand keas survive in the wild.

Several keas live in an outdoor exhibit at Franklin Park Zoo's Bird's World.

On this day in 365 Urban Species: Dryad's Saddle and Stinky Squid! Two great fungi with two great names! If it would rain this month, we might see them. Instead, we're getting an early autumn as the stressed out and dehydrated trees are already dropping their leaves.

Comments

sheep-worrying parrot = SO MUCH WIN

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

Keas are my favourite psittacine EVER. Thank you so much!

[frith]

On Sunday I was showing my Woodland Park Zoo pictures of keas to a friend and he asked me why they had such long beaks. I had no clue. Do you know what is the possible utility of such long beaks in keas?

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

i would hazard a guess that it has something to do with the food they eat.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

Most of it lies with the variety of items they gather. Remember that keas are alpine parrots, so not only are they regularly collecting food in rocky areas, but they're also gathering food that may have frozen to the ground in winter. They're notorious garbage scavengers in the wild, and they have no problems with tearing into carrion, so I can see the long beaks as an adaptation for levering out and breaking off chunks of flesh from bird, sheep, and human carcasses if the opportunity presents itself.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

Don't forget that keas are also the only known predatory parrots, as they've been caught on video in two separate incidents of sheep attacks, and based on fossil evidence, they also apparently fed quite well on moas caught in bogs before humans arrived. (If the Franklin Park Zoo has keas in it, I'm definitely heading out there, because keas are some of the animals I want to see personally before I die, and I don't know if I'm ever going to get in that trip to Aotearoa.)

[octogirlie.livejournal.com]

Keas! They're so cool, but they practically eat cars! D=

[rosaleen.livejournal.com]

*g* Fancy seeing a kea on my friends list! I had no idea they were kept in zoos overseas.

The title of world's strangest parrot, however, has to go to the kakapo (http://www.doc.govt.nz/templates/podcover.aspx?id=32854), another NZ endemic :)

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

*agrees* BOOOOOM!

[vampyrusgirl.livejournal.com]

Oh, I miss the keas!!

[fledchen.livejournal.com]

::psittacine fangirl mode:: Keas! When I was last in the Boston area (June 2001) I wanted to go to that zoo for the sole purpose of looking at the keas, but I didn't manage to get to the zoo because other things came up.

[by-steph.livejournal.com]

Have you ever read "Last Chance To See"?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I haven't, which i admit is surprising. You'd have thought that my brother would have forced it upon me long ago.

[by-steph.livejournal.com]

You are hereby stripped of your naturalist and science writer titles. ;)

[closertofalling.livejournal.com]

oooohh...keas are awesome. :D

we have (or had rather since he got transferred) a kea at my zoo that i work at, named kupe. he was so cool.

this is him:

[bellelvsbeast.livejournal.com]

Aw cute! :)

Unusual Parrot

[(Anonymous)]

Most Unusual Parrot I have ever seen, never seen one before. www.bird-coop.com