In New Zealand , there is a kind of bird that looks like a "drunk man" among birds. They are often drunk and don't cause trouble after getting drunk. They either lie on the ground swaying or fall from trees. They are New Zealand wooden pigeons.
In 2018, New Zealand selected the best bird of the year. New Zealand wooden pigeon fell down because of the often drunkenness of and was very popular with people. won the championship of the 2018 Bird Selection Competition.
But wait!
New Zealand wooden pigeons will also get drunk? Where did their wine come from?
also starts with the habits of New Zealand wooden pigeons.
New Zealand wooden pigeon
New Zealand wooden pigeon is a member of the pigeon family and looks similar to pigeons, but its feathers are very beautiful, with blue-gray feathers on the chest and red feathers on the wings.
They are large birds with a weight of 550-850 grams and feed on fruits, leaves, buds and flowers, among which fruits are an important part of their diet.
After eating, they will also bask in the sun while digesting the food, which will cause the food in the bird's stomach to begin to ferment. This is because New Zealand wooden pigeons especially like sweet fruits, and the sugar content in the fruit is very high. When basking in the sun, the temperature rises also helps the fermentation of food in the stomach. The alcohol produced after fermentation will make New Zealand wooden pigeons "drunk", become unconscious, and even unable to maintain their body stability, and shake left and right on the branches.
Sometimes New Zealand wooden pigeons will fall from the tree due to drunkenness, fall down from the tree, fall head-on into the grass, and then continue to sleep.
It is no wonder that local residents see them, and because New Zealand wooden pigeons are the reason for protecting animals, local residents will not hurt them, but will help them "quit drinking".
But other animals living in the local area are not so kind. When faced with drunken New Zealand wooden pigeons, they will only treat it as a "free lunch".
New Zealand is composed of two large islands, South Island , North Island and Stewart Island and some nearby small islands. It is surrounded by the sea and far away from the mainland, so the ecosystem here is different from other continents, which also means that they are very easy to invade by other organisms.
Among them, cats, ferrets , possum and mice are invasive species. They come here with the pace of humans, and they reproduce extensively because they adapt to the local ecological environment and have no natural enemies, causing serious damage to local organisms.
Among them, New Zealand wooden pigeons will faint on the ground after being drunk. This was nothing in the past, but now, drunk New Zealand wooden pigeons have become food for invading animals such as cats and ferrets. Rats and possums will also kill the young of New Zealand wooden pigeons.
Vehicles can also easily cause the death of New Zealand wooden pigeons. The reason is that New Zealand wooden pigeons were knocked down by passing vehicles when they flew over the highway at low speed, which once caused the number of New Zealand wooden pigeons to drop.
However, the local protection measures for New Zealand wooden pigeons are still very in place. Today, New Zealand wooden pigeons are no longer at risk of extinction, but they still rely on human protection.
The importance of New Zealand wooden pigeons
For us humans, New Zealand wooden pigeons are cute and beautiful when drunk. Local Maori will even capture them in order to obtain their beautiful feathers.
But for the ecology, the most important thing about New Zealand wooden pigeons is not their cute behavior and good-looking appearance, but that they are an indispensable part of the local ecological chain.
New Zealand wooden pigeons are a big guy in the pigeon family, they eat very much, and they can swallow larger seeds, and this characteristic helps the plants a lot.
Why do plants grow fruits? It is to attract animals to eat, and of course it cannot be eaten for nothing. Instead, after eating the fruit, the core should be excreted to the distance to help them spread seeds.
New Zealand wooden pigeons are large in size and can swallow large fruits, and these fruits are unavailable for ordinary birds. In other words, these plants rely highly on New Zealand wooden pigeons to spread seeds, such as: a berries called Caraca. This tree is an important part of New Zealand coastal forests and an evergreen tree, but their fruits are larger. Although small birds can peck at berries, they cannot help them spread seeds, and New Zealand wooden pigeons can do it.
Although New Zealand wooden pigeons do not have an extinction crisis, they are not very capable of reproduction and will only lay one egg at a time. This means that once their population plummets, it is very difficult to recover from prosperity again, so although they do not have an extinction crisis, they still need protection.
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