Wang Bo drove to the ranch, and Peterson handed him a telescope and said, "You look straight ahead, there is a flock of birds there, it's kea." Pen %Fun %Pavilion www.biquge.info"

"It's called a parrot, why do you call it kea?"

"Because that's what they call it, and it's easier for us to call them that."

Looking out of the binoculars, Wang Bo first saw a flock of Romney sheep.

These Romney sheep have a snow-white coat and look clean, which is very different from the dirty sheep raised on other pastures, and it is a pleasing sight.

However, a few sheep were in a bad condition, their backs were drenched in blood, their white appearance was dyed red, and these sheep were walking around anxiously, and the injured ones were constantly bleating in pain.

Wang Bo moved the telescope, and a big bird suddenly came out from behind a sheep, which suddenly appeared in his field of vision, which startled him.

The bird, which is half a meter long, is a large bird with olive-green feathers with black piping; The feathers on the top of the head and neck are yellowish-green with dark radial stripes.

Its **** and belly are light brownish-green, the lower part of its back is orange-red, its mouth is slender and curved to gray-brown, its eyes are dark brown, and its appearance is very domineering.

After appearing, the bird flapped its wings and landed on the back of the Romney sheep, and its two claws were like iron hooks, and they grabbed the sheep's back at once, and it was directly red!

This is the parrot, and its movements explain its name.

"See? This is the nasty kea, they often attack the flock, jumping on the backs of the sheep, tearing the sheep's skins, pecking at the mutton, and always making the docile sheep panic and violent. Peterson said.

After the parrot attacked the Romney sheep, it opened its thick beak and let out a few screams, but from a distance, Wang Bo couldn't hear clearly, and he didn't know if it really sounded 'k-e-a'.

A few more parrots appeared in the back, and these parrots were chasing the sheep, and instead of flying and chasing, they jumped with their feet, and their movements looked funny, jumping up and down like clowns.

The action is funny, but the temperament is not funny, these guys catch up with the sheep is to go up and come up with a mouthful or grab a handful with their claws, they have a lot of strength, and they can tear the sheepskin in a few strokes.

Romney sheep have a very supple temperament, and when they are bullied, they don't know how to resist, they just blindly hide.

There are no tigers and monkeys in the mountains to call the king, and the sheep parrot probably thinks that they are very powerful, and the four-legged beasts that are dozens of times larger than themselves are chasing and running around, and they are called an arrogance.

Seeing his precious flock being bullied like this, Lao Wang's nose smoked.

However, moe is justice, although this bird is very domineering, but the appearance is indeed beautiful, and the turquoise feathers are relatively rare among other birds.

Therefore, Lao Wang hesitated a little and said, "How do you deal with these birds?" Kill them? Chase them away? ”

"It's not easy to deal with, first of all we can't get rid of them, there is a lack of food in winter, we have so many sheep here, they must be happy to stay," said Peterson. ”

"It's not good to kill them, they belong to a vulnerable breed. New Zealand has a foundation dedicated to protecting them, and people love kea, with many New Zealanders growing their favourite plants at home to attract them to their gardens. ”

Sheep parrots have a good life, because their persecution of sheep was once considered a pest and suffered serious culling, especially by farmers and ranchers, who have made great efforts in the process of culling parrots.

Peterson told Wang Bo that humans had wiped out at least 150,000 sheep-pecking parrots. Wildlife experts have since come to realize that doing so could upset the ecological balance of the area.

By 1986, New Zealand had enacted laws to protect the parrot, and there were only 3,000 of them in the country.

The law does not stipulate that it is illegal to cull a parrot, it does not allow commercial hunting and recreational hunting, and if the parrot harms the life of the herder, it can also be killed.

In Wang Bo's case, it is not illegal to kill a parrot.

However, it was very painful that this time it was a large flock of sheep pecking parrots that came to the Sunset Ranch, and Peterson took Lao Wang to walk around the pasture and saw at least a hundred parrots of all sizes arrogant.

Hunting down hundreds of sheep, not to mention whether Wang Bo and they can go happily in their hearts, just say that this situation is exposed, and the trouble from the Sheep Conservation Association alone is enough to annoy him.

These parrots don't just hunt sheep, they are not so fierce that they can kill sheep, but they will peck at the meat and fat of the sheep and hurt them.

More often than not, parrots feed on leaves, fruits, berries, grass roots, vegetation, nectar, insects, worms, dead animals, camp garbage, and all kinds of food given by humans.

Every spring, they dig up the mountains for a variety of plants, and search the snowdrifts and rocks for new plant shoots or small insects to feed on.

In the summer, they look for fruits, berries, seeds, flowers, etc., among the dwarf trees or bushes in the mountains.

In autumn, they mostly spend time in beech forests, foraging for buds, leaves and nuts.

But in the harshest season of winter, their food is drastically reduced, except for some parrots living in tourist areas, which are fed by tourists, most of them will go to look for the remains of dead animals, digging up the internal organs and fat parts to eat.

It is in the winter that they like to attack sheep the most, and they rarely do this when they have something to eat in spring, summer and autumn, and in the final analysis, the act of attacking sheep is the only thing they can find to get food in this season.

Peterson is an old cowboy with a lot of experience in the breeding industry, and he also has good ideas on how to deal with these parrots:

"Chief, do you know that these parrots are not invincible, they have natural predators, and to get rid of them, you have to rely on their natural predators."

"We have a lot of possums on our pastures, and that's one of the enemies of the parrots, they can't hurt the adults, but they can hurt the young, and even the opossums are very fond of stealing the eggs of the parrots to eat."

"Kea is a very intelligent bird, and when they find their offspring in danger, they will voluntarily leave the area."

Wang Bo looked at him and said, "So what we have to do is to cultivate opossums?" Don't you think we have too many possums on our ranch? ”

"No, we should raise stoats, this animal is the one that likes to hunt kea chicks the most."

Wang Bo thought for a while, shook his head and said, "No, I have a better idea." ”

(To be continued.) )