They say that, given an infinite number of monkeys on typewriters, and infinite time, you would eventually create the entire works of Shakespeare. Well, evolution may not have had quite that long, but it has had a few billion years to experiment – so it’s no surprise that it’s come up with some pretty wacky designs for organisms here and there.
Nevertheless, nature still has the ability to surprise us. Take the shoebill, for example: a bird so bizarre, it almost strains credulity. Looking more like a Jim Henson creation than a real animal, it often evokes disbelief that such a creature could even exist. So, what makes them so weird?
Meet the real-life Big Bird
When we say the shoebill makes for a striking sight, we need you to know what we mean. It’s about 1.5 meters tall – that’s 5 feet, or taller than one in 10 US women – so you could pretty literally look it in its large and eerily human eyes, if you wanted to.
Spoiler alert: you’re losing this staring contest.
Image credit: Ronald Uljee/Shutterstock.com
Far more noticeable, though, is its huge beak – so wide that it doesn’t even seem to fit properly on the face. At up to 24 centimeters from feathers to tip – about 9.5 inches – it’s the third largest bill among all extant birds by length, and potentially the biggest of all by circumference. Adding to the drama, it’s also knife-edge sharp, and ends with a pointed nail on the upper mandible.
No surprise then that it’s this feature that gives the bird its name: shoebill, sure, but also its binomial form, Balaeniceps rex – “King Whale-head”. Whew. It’s enough to give a bird a complex.
Still, as strange as its face may be, it’s far from the only oddity in this bird’s design. It has a crown of feathers above its head; a coat of grey plumage that would make a Savile Row tailor sigh; and the legs of a supermodel, which is to say, very long, thin ones punctuated by gigantic feet.
Their wingspan is huge – up to 2.6 meters wide, or around 8.5 feet. Overall, they’re so weird looking that it took four tries to get their classification right: first they were assumed to be a type of stork; in the 1950s, it was suggested they might be closer to pelicans; half a century later, people thought maybe it was a heron; now, with DNA evidence behind us, we’re back to thinking it’s closer to a pelican – though its closest relative is actually the comparatively small and normal-looking hamerkop.
So, we’ve established the shoebill looks bizarre – but does it at least act like a regular bird?
A deadly dork
The shoebill, if you didn’t know, has become something of a social media superstar in recent years. You might think that’s due to its iconic looks, and that’s probably partly true – but it’s not the whole story.
See, the shoebill is also… how can we put this… weird as heck. Those huge wings, for example, mean it can fly – but it rarely does so, preferring instead to stand stock-still for long periods of time, scoping out the edges of freshwater swamps in East Africa where it lives.
Once it spots a potential snack, however, it shows off just how fast it can move. “Swiftly collapsing its entire body weight at the prey item, with its bill taking the brunt of the impact,” it lunges at its target, explains San Diego Zoo. This is where that razor-sharp beak really shines: it uses the tip to spear its prey, and the edge to decapitate it.
“Lungfish, catfish, and tilapia are common food items,” the Zoo notes, but so are “water snakes, frogs, monitor lizards, and young turtles.”
Its gawky appearance belies a formidable fighter. It’s been known to fight and even eat crocodiles – including the Nile crocodile, one of the largest species out there. In fact, these birds basically come out of the egg ready to fight: while clutches of two or three eggs aren’t rare, only one baby tends to survive to adulthood, having usually killed off its siblings along the way. And don’t think their moms will chide them for it, either – the smaller chicks are basically “spares”, and parents won’t help them out against their bullying brothers and sisters.
And then, on top of all that, there’s its telltale call – a loud clattering noise that’s said to resemble an actual machine gun.
It’s made by hammering its two mandibles together at speed, like a huge castanet – and while it may be bewildering and off-putting to us, it’s apparently quite the turn-on for other shoebills, as this noise mostly comes out during nesting season. That’s pretty much the only time, by the way, that shoebills hang out with each other – even breeding pairs of this monogamous bird tend to keep to opposite ends of their combined hunting range.
And for true proof of this bird’s ability to go total berserker-mode, just look at its legs. Or, you know, just take a big whiff: those long stalks it walks on are going to be covered in its own shit. For thermodynamic purposes, you understand.
A bird on the edge
Shoebills are pretty long-lived for a bird – they can get up to an impressive 35 years old, which is more than, say, Alexander the Great ever managed. They’re proficient hunters, and big enough to intimidate predators; plus, they hang out with hippos, which is bound to deter most things looking for a feathery snack.
That said, as a species, they’re not doing too great. Thanks to habitat loss in East Africa – mostly due to human encroachment and, of course, climate change – as well as pollution, nest disturbance, and hunting for the illegal live bird trade, their numbers are dropping. There are only an estimated 5,000 or fewer left in the wild, and the species is classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List.
Thankfully, with growing attention on the birds’ plight, local efforts have been set up to protect these weird and wonderful animals from poachers and nest disturbances. In the Bangweulu Wetlands, in northeast Zambia, “chiefdoms, DNPW [Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife], and African Parks have worked together, co-governing the wetlands and restoring the area’s ecosystems,” reported the Audubon Society in 2018. “Poaching has been curtailed. And wildlife […] has returned.”
“Sustainable farming practices are being adopted, and fish stocks, which were dwindling, are bouncing back,” the Society noted – which is, it pointed out, “good news for both Shoebills and fishermen.”
Source Link: The Shoebill Is A Bird So Bizarre That Some People Don't Even Believe It's Real
