As I was writing about the role of burros in protecting
flocks from coyotes, I was thinking about another predator of sheep on a
far-away range. In the grasslands of
The scientific name of this bird is Nestor notabilis,
and its common name is kea. It nests and lives most of the year in the rocky
recesses of the
Keas are cute little devils. One afternoon in 1991 I was hiking through the
tussock grasslands of
Keas are known for using their parrot-beaks to strip the wiper blades and any other loose rubber from cars, which was what this one was doing. We offered him various objects--sunglasses, pocket-knives--but didn't let him keep any of them, so eventually he got disgusted and flapped away.
Urban back-packers and foreign tourists love keas. Sheep farmers don't. Like North American ranchers watchful for coyotes, they shoot them when they seem them.
Keas were a source of wonder to scientists back in the 1860s and 1870s. Men of science insisted that keas, known vegetarians, could not possibly have developed a hunger for meat by natural evolution. Shepherds by the score, however, offered graphic descriptions of sheep kills by keas.
The keas killed by landing on the backs of sheep-- snow-bound beasts were especially vulnerable--digging their claws into the wool, and lacerating the sheep's backs with their beaks. The shepherds said the keas were after the kidney fat. Probably the birds were not really that selective. They just dug in where it was convenient, on the lower back.
The carnivorous tastes of the birds were obvious when they discovered mutton carcasses conveniently hung outdoors at sheep stations. Keas clung to the carcasses and ate with relish.
It took a long time for scientists to believe this. It didn't matter how many shepherds said it was so, they were just shepherds.
The sheep farmers acted on the evidence before them. They shot and poisoned keas by the hundreds. One sheep raiser not only picked off the birds with a .22 himself but also, over a period of 17 years in the 1940s and 1950s, paid bounties for 1500 kea beaks.
Since then incidents of keas killing sheep have diminished. Some say it's because the deer population has been reduced, and thus there are more berries left for the birds to eat.
For whatever reason, the belief now is that sheep killing is done only by a few rogue birds, "killer keas." When these are found to be at work, the sheep men go after them, patrol their flocks, and treat wounded animals for blood poisoning. They also resort to profanity, cussing both the birds and the environmentalists who defend them.
Does any of this sound familiar?