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teach1st

(5,935 posts)
4. Just came on to share this
Tue Mar 26, 2024, 12:22 PM
Mar 26

The Cute Bird Playing With a Golf Ball Is Actually Trying to Kill It
Slate

What is actually happening here is that the seriemas are trying to murder the balls. It’s possible that the serimeias, which are native to South America, mistook the balls for eggs and were merely trying to break them open, says Kenn Kaufmann, a birder and field editor for Audubon Magazine. But seremias can be more vicious than that. “A number of sources say that seriemas may kill active vertebrate prey (like reptiles or rodents) by slamming the creatures against the ground or throwing them at hard surfaces,” Kaufmann explained to me in an email. The seremias’ behavior is a step beyond most birds’ murder techniques: “Many bird species will bash their prey repeatedly against a perch or against the ground, but throwing seems more risky, since there’s a chance the animal will escape.”


https://slate.com/technology/2019/08/the-cute-birds-playing-with-golf-balls-are-actually-trying-to-kill-them.html
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