The shoebill’s favorite meal is air-breathing, Eel-like fish called a lungfish. All shoebills in these zoos were either born there or were legally collected from the wild. Currently, only a handful of zoos open to the public have shoebills, including the Prague Zoo in the Czech Republic, Pairi Daiza in Belgium, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, the Dallas World Aquarium, and UWEC zoo in Entebbe. Shoebills rarely breed in captivity: At least only two chicks have hatched outside the shoebill’s dwelling zone in the last hundred years. So keep a distance when trying to get that perfect shot. Selfie, anyone? Careful, it can also inflict a very powerful bite and it’s by no means a safe bird for a stranger ignorant of its ways to approach. Complemented by their golden eyes, the posture affects a compelling death stare. Shoebills can stand virtually motionless for hours with their bills held down against their necks. That’s why taxonomists originally placed it within the family of storks since all storks also use their own shit to cool off. Apparently, the practice is effective in lowering their body temperature. Shoebills have a repulsive habit of shitting on their legs. ![]() The shoebill has other exciting names, including the boat-bill, bog-bird, lesser lechwe-eater (referring to the shoebill’s alleged taste for lechwe, or aquatic antelope), and Abu markub, or “father of a slipper” in Arabic. So, I would say it’s in the same group as pelicans. They now classify the grotesque bird in the Pelecaniformes group after staring at their telescopes and watching the bird for countless hours. Traditionally classified with storks (Ciconiiformes) and retained there, but recently taxonomists have awakened the debate. Or, ‘Whale-head’ from the Latin words Balaena “whale” and caput “head,” abbreviated to -ceps in compound words. John Gould, an English ornithologist, described it in 1850, giving it the name Balaeniceps rex. Classification: Heron, Stork or Pelican?Īccording to Wikipedia, the shoebill was known to both ancient Egyptians and Arabs but was not classified until the 19th century, after skins and eventually live specimens were brought to Europe. If you want to find out more about these impressive birds or have a chance to see an actual one before your eyes, you may just have to visit the Bangweulu Wetlands with Robin Pope Safaris in June 2020.Shoebills can stand virtually motionless for hours with their bills held down against their necks. After shaking its head to rid its mouth of any unwanted vegetation, it will decapitate its prey with the razor-sharp edges of its bill and then gulp it down. When a shoebill has prey in its sights, it will launch forward with its bill wide open and engulf whatever creature it has found. Their fishing tactics are a little terrifyingīe thankful you are not a lungfish or even a baby crocodile in the swampy fishing ground of a shoebill. The sound can be quite loud and frightening. They do this around the nest, when greeting another shoebill or sometimes when they are about to strike prey. ![]() It is called bill-clattering and can be likened to a machine-gun being fired. While shoebills are mostly silent, when they do make a noise, it is quite an alarming sound to hear. They are often found standing tall and statue-like on a clump of water vegetation and then moving slowly while watching for fish. At 1.5m in height, they stand as high as celebrities like Lady Gaga and Kourtney Kardashian. If water birds had a basketball team, shoebills would undoubtedly make the team, along with their wading counterparts the saddle-billed stork and giant heron. Weaker chicks will be bullied by their tougher siblings, even to the extent of starving them and sometimes outright killing them.Īs King of the Swamps, the shoebill clearly has some attitude © Robin Pope Safaris While they may hatch two or more chicks, it is generally just one that survives and that is, of course, the strongest. ![]() In the world of shoebills (and other species), the parents are not ashamed of having a favorite ‘child’. Their maternal instincts are questionable Better still, the hippo forces the fish up to the surface, making them easier to catch. As a hippo charges through swamps thick with reeds, they open these otherwise inaccessible watery channels to the shoebill that can then use them to fish. Sharing the same swampy patch with hippos has proven to be quite useful for shoebills. The shoebill’s notoriously deathly stare © Robin Pope Safarisīut what else do we know about these extraordinary waterbirds? Well, here are five of some of the most interesting facts about them, which hopefully will inspire you to find out more:
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