Groups of elephants have caused famine, and 1.5 billion African sparrows have flooded the area, leaving locals unable to eat them all. Why?

The photographer once took a photo of a group of red-billed queleas beating an elephant. On the land of Africa, elephants wanted to go to a water source to drink water. As a result, the red-billed queleas took the pond as their own and were unwilling to share it with the elephants. So they formed a flock of birds and took turns beating the elephants. Drive it away from the pond.

On the savanna south of the Sahara in Africa, there are the largest number of birds in the world: red-billed queleas. They are very small, about 12 centimeters in length and weighing 20. Gram or so. It mainly feeds on the seeds of plants, especially crops. After all, crops grow intensively and have high yields.

On average, a red-billed quelea can eat 18 grams of grain per day, which does not seem to be very harmful to farmers, but what you need to know is that the red-billed quelea likes to live in groups. The average number of red-billed queleas in the population is millions or even tens of millions. It takes up to 5 hours for them to fly over your head.

Due to the huge population size, they consume a very large amount of food. Taking a population of 2 million as an example, they will consume 50 tons of food every day, while the population of red-billed Quelea finches The number is between 1.5 billion and 10 billion. You can imagine how much food they consume every day.

Man vs. Red-billed Quelea

Red-billed Quelea is also known as the "feathered locust". Like locusts, they will cause Local crops were destroyed because the population of red-billed queleas was very large, and the red-billed queleas that fell behind would fly to the front for food, so that the red-billed queleas in front became If they reach the rear, they will also fly to the front.

In this way, a group of red-billed Quelia finches can consume 50 tons of local food every day. In order to save the food, local farmers have to form a team to constantly drive them away. However, they can fly and cannot fly. How long will it take to come back?

Some foodies may ask, since there are so many red-billed queleas, why don’t the locals eat them? In fact, the local people in Africa are not stupid. They also use red-billed queleas as a source of protein. In N'Djamena alone, more than 5 million red-billed queleas are captured every year, which is only compared to 1 billion. On such a scale, the amount of human hunting is simply not enough to threaten their populations.

However, the red-billed Quelea has a weakness, that is, it will stay in one place during the breeding season. They build nests in trees during the breeding season and rest there at night. At this time, local people will use homemade bombs to detonate the place and set the trees on fire. It is understood that each bomb attack can kill tens of thousands of red-billed queleas. Local farmers can relax their vigilance a little.

Just homemade bombs cannot completely solve the problem of red-billed queleas, because Africa is vast and sparsely populated, and there are many uninhabited areas. Red-billed queleas living in uninhabited areas cannot survive. will be affected, and they will fly to the farmland again when the environment is suitable.

Coupled with the fast reproduction efficiency and long life cycle of the red-billed quelea, each red-billed quelea can survive for 2-3 years in the wild on average, but if the environment is suitable, they can survive for 18 years Years or so.

If their population decreases, they will also expand the flock by integrating into other bird groups, such as weaver birds. The larger the flock, the better the effect of resisting natural enemies. Death The rate is lower. Because of this, human hunting poses no threat to them at all.

Why are red-billed queleas prone to flooding?

We know that many animals are on the verge of extinction due to human influence, but why are red-billed queleas prone to flooding?

This is actually related to their habits.

Red-billed Queleas like to live in groups, and the larger the population size, the easier it is to resist natural enemies. In addition, the food grown by farmers provides them with a large source of energy. Although their population size is large, they can migrate around to find energy sources in different places.

In addition, red-billed queleas reproduce very quickly and can reproduce multiple generations per year under suitable conditions. So much so that even if their populations decline, they will come back again if the environment is right.

More importantly, the place where the red-billed Quelea lives is sparsely populated, and the number of people hunting it is limited, making it difficult to control the population. If it were in Eurasia, it might have been hunted by people long ago. Eliminated.

Summary

For red-billed queleas, their evolution has been very successful, making them the most abundant wild bird in the world. But for farmers living in the area, red-billed queleas are simply a nightmare. People want to eliminate them but cannot completely eliminate them.

Precisely because the Red-billed Qualea is prone to overpopulation, many countries are very wary of this bird and prohibit people from bringing it into the country as pets.