The sheep-eating Kea

[Akoni]

My friend just got back from a month and a half long trip to New Zealand and Australia, and we were talking about the birds he saw over there. He said that the coolest parrot he saw was a kea, the world's only alpine parrot, found in the South Island of NZ. I wikipedia'd keas, and found out some other interesting tidbits: they are polygynous, and they attack sheep. Sheep farmers actually had a bounty out for them until the 1980s, so they are somewhat uncommon. I had to share!


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Kea - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[BirdsFTW]

WOW! Look at that!!

 

[Mizzely]

I think Keas are some of the coolest birds in the world!

 

[65sunnyday]

They are sooo neat--& many consider them the most intelligent of all parrots.

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

What the Kea wants on the sheep is the fat that grows around the sheeps' kidneys. The Keas are very surgical about mining the live sheep for that fat. Sheep farming is a big deal in NZ and Kea depredations on sheep are a very big problem.

 

[Stevo]

I'll wait for some of our Kiwi members to come along and correct some of this information - let's just say you can't believe everything you read on Wiki, lol. My one tidbit - they're not all that uncommon in NZ. They're also held, in limited numbers, within US Aviculture

 

[Somebirdie]

I love all the videos of them destroying cars hahaha


a nat geo doco had them pulling baby sea birds from their nests and eating them. I was...pretty horrorfied watching it!


It's like

"aww cool parrot! aww cutie baby birdie! WHAT ARE YOU DOING BIRD?!"

 

[snackies]

I saw these at NZ zoo, they are very cool and have a very cute sound.

 

[jmfleish]

They are neat parrots but hard to keep in any kind of enclosure. I know of a breeder here in the US but I'm sure his stock goes back into breeding. They are master mechanical manipulators for sure!

 

[Birdbabe]

Wow, its beautiful.

 

[Love My Zons]

Spectacular to see in such a cool geography with snow and mountains. What a neat bird!

 

[SandraK]

So my curiosity has now been piqued and I had to look it up and found this site Kea: New Zealand native land birds. Since I have a soundless computer @ work I'm going to have to wait to hear the actual cry but there was something about a video about some cheekly local vandals near a ski field at Treble Cone. Off to investigate keas ...

 

[Laurul Feather Cat]

Keas are fantastic parrots; one of a kind. They are one of the few parrots that regularly eat meat and actually hunt other animals. With their habitat high in the NZ Alps, they need the calories; and fat has the most calories in the smallest volume. Which ever Kea figured out how to mine sheep fat, that bird taught others and now all the Keas that live amoung sheep ranches all do it. It is a very interesting learned behavior. Keas are the most facinating parrots I have ever read about.

 

[Dot]

Yes, they have learned how to take down a sheep. Amazing.

Dot