I have a wildlife zoo-Chapter 661 - 660: Not So Smart Appearance

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Its broad wings half-spread, it twisted with such vigor!

The scarf-like feathers beneath its neck seemed as if they were about to be flung off.

When paired with a lively electronic dance track, it felt perfectly natural.

The visitors were at a loss: "Why is it shaking like that?"

"China Traditional Lightning Whip!"

"Worthy of being the hyperactive bird species!"

They asked the animal keeper, "What is it doing?"

The keeper, who was also somewhat unsure, having not been in contact with the bird for long and still not fully understanding its temperament, speculated based on experience with caring for other waterfowl: "Maybe it's trying to show us who's boss? It's signaling that this is its territory and doesn't want us to come close? Let's watch from a bit farther away!"

The visitors were reasonable and stepped back a bit upon hearing this.

A curious visitor asked, "I remember hearing that the whale-headed stork became endangered because it's quite clumsy at catching fish. Is that true?"

The keeper smiled and countered, "What do you think?"

The visitor thought for a moment: "Heh, I have no idea."

The keeper raised an eyebrow and said, "Of course not! Look at the whale-headed stork's huge beak, it's powerful enough to catch African lungfish over 50 centimeters long, catfish, and even the young of the Nile crocodile and young monitor lizards. It's actually a very fierce bird."

"Wow!"

"It eats crocodiles! Even the baby ones are impressive!"

There was a collective gasp from the crowd.

"You might have the impression that it's a rather dumb bird. Like standing still for a long time, not moving at all, almost statue-like.

Actually, that's the whale-headed stork's hunting strategy, quite similar to the heron's behavior. Once it spots prey, it strikes swiftly, diving into the water with its large beak to snatch the prey.

And the fact that it often rolls its eyes back could be another reason people think it looks dumb.

In reality, this is a nictitating membrane shared by many animals, which serves to clean and protect the eyes.

For example, when crocodiles are underwater, their nictitating membrane opens to protect their eyes, acting like swimming goggles. However, the crocodile's nictitating membrane is transparent.

During the split second when the whale-headed stork catches fish, this membrane shuts to prevent water splashing into its eyes and to protect the eyeball from being injured by fish.

It might appear dumb to us humans, but that doesn't mean the whale-headed stork really is dumb."

"Oh~"

The keeper continued, "The idea that it's in danger because it can't hunt fish is like saying pandas are endangered because they're frigid. Every creature we see has strong survival skills.

In some videos, you see whale-headed storks struggling to catch small fish because they are used to catching large fish several tens of centimeters in length. Of course, they would find it harder to pick up smaller fish, just like we would find it hard to pick up tiny beans with chopsticks compared to picking up larger objects.

Then you get sensationalist claims saying this bird is so dumb that it can't catch fish and will become extinct by its own ineptitude when in fact, its endangered status is a result of the destruction of its natural habitat.

Look at the tip of the whale-headed stork's beak, curved like an eagle's talon; it's very precise."

While they were talking, a mallard swam over to the log that the whale-headed stork was standing on.

It flapped its wings, alighting on the log, seemingly intending to bask in the sun there.

The whale-headed stork immediately took notice, turning towards the duck.

Suddenly, with a light leap, it hopped next to the mallard, wings spread backward in a charging stance.

It bent down and grabbed the mallard with its beak.

The mallard, hanging in mid-air, kicked frantically and quacked loudly in fright!

"Oh!"

The crowd exclaimed in surprise!

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The whale-headed stork's eyes, full of intelligence, blinked and it loosened its grip to let the subject experience a free fall, with two feathers drifting down.

The mallard's heart must have been on the verge of collapse, thinking, "Bro, what are you doing, playing around?"

After falling into the water, it quickly swam away, probably never daring to approach this "big brother" so easily again.

Amamiya Kokoro patted her chest and let out a breath, "I thought the duck was going to be eaten!"

The animal keeper explained, "The whale-headed stork is somewhat like the pelican, not only in temperament, looking a bit silly, but also in their habit of picking things up with their beak.

Although they do occasionally eat birds, their main food source is fish!

We regularly feed them fish, so they won't eat birds, it's just out of curiosity that they pick them up, else we wouldn't be able to let them cohabit with the mandarin ducks and mallards here."

"Haha, I've even seen pelicans swallow the heads of swans, then spit them out again, angering the swans to the point where they chased the pelicans pecking at them."

"Swallowing the head of a swan is nothing, I've even seen them pick up a child's head."

"But to be fair, the way it snatched up the duck just now was really swift! And its gaze was very imposing."

The visitors, just listening to the animal keeper, could hardly imagine how such a doltish bird hunts.

But having just observed the whale-headed stork pick up the duck, although its movements weren't as swift as an eagle's hunting dive, resembling a flash of lightning that swiftly strikes from the sky, its large size meant that even if it moved slowly, one jump could cover a great distance, and its beak was very precise.

It gave the impression of Tai Chi's principle of moving later to arrive first.

Looking at the whale-headed stork now, its eyes were bright and sharp, like those of a cold-hearted assassin!

The impression was vastly different.

Another curious visitor asked, "I saw a video where a whale-headed stork bows to people, very politely, is that true?"

The animal keeper chuckled, "Why don't you try it, practice brings out the truth!"

So the visitor stepped forward, giving the whale-headed stork a bow.

He looked up expectantly, waiting for it to return the gesture!

The whale-headed stork cocked its head, staring at the visitor with intelligent eyes.

Its look seemed to say: Are you stupid or what?

"Eh?" The visitor looked disappointed.

The animal keeper explained, "The bowing to people might be because it was raised by humans from a young age and didn't see other whale-headed storks, so it treats people like its own kind, which is their way of communicating with each other.

Like our Oriental storks here at Crane Pavilion, they have similar behaviors when courting or alerting, bowing while clattering their bills, quite noisy like woodpeckers, and also very entertaining."

The whale-headed stork stayed on the waterside log for a while, slowly taking a couple of steps.

Suddenly, as if it had spotted something, it spread its wings and darted forward.

This time, it snagged a piece of black wood from the water.

After tossing it towards the back of its mouth, "clack, clack" it chewed a couple of times, the tuft of feathers at the back of its head also shaking.

It blinked and turned up its eyes.

Judging by its expression, the taste wasn't very good, so it released the wood.

With a "plop," the wood fell back into the water.

The wood may have fallen into the water, but it was scooped up again.

In fact, it was just playing with the wood!

Because of its dopey appearance, it gave off the impression of not being very smart.

The behavior had the visitors bursting into laughter.

Indeed, it was a very endearing and adorable bird, no wonder whale-headed storks are so popular on the internet nowadays.

Amamiya Kokoro couldn't stop laughing and took many pictures of the whale-headed stork.