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>From: "Luke Howison" <lukeh@ihug.co.nz>
>To: "Chuck Kuecker" <ckuecker@mcs.net>
>Subject: RE: Re: from 6 billion to 500 million: how?
>Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2001 15:07:40 +1300
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>
> > >I saw a TV program which showed intelligent parrots that had started to
> > >feed on sheep: the parrots noted that sheep cannot defend their backs, so
> > >they land on them, hack up holes in the backs of the sheep, and feed on
> > >the flesh. Somewhere in Australia or New Zealand, I believe.
>
>Ha ha! All wrong!
>All right. The kea (Key-Ah) is a large dark-green parrot with beautiful
>dark orange under its wings. It lives in the South Island mountain ranges
>of New Zealand. They are smart, but not particularly smart, really. They
>crave fat in the cold winters, and some of them have learnt to land on the
>sheeps back and rip into the area above the kidneys. They are not
>intelligent to figure it out, but just hungry. Farmers get pissed off and
>shoot the keas, even though only some of the very few attacked sheep die (An
>illustration of how dumb both sheep and sheep farmers are, perhaps? :-)
>Keas are quite destructive; they have huge, strong hooked beaks and can rip
>into cars - tearing up the rubber parts around the windows and other
>fittings like aerials.
>They are also quite 'friendly' - too friendly in fact. I saw one kea land
>on a young boys head - ominiously, it bit his ear and cut it badly. It then
>proceeded to land on my brothers head, and he allowed it there for several
>seconds, and then shooed it off.
>
>Luke H, NZ
>
>You can Fwd that back to the Exi list, if you like, Chuck.
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