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

[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.