![]() ![]() It might look like a dinosaur, but the shoebill stork isn’t a T-Rex. Why do shoebill storks gravitate towards shallow water? What is the habitat of the shoebill stork? Why do shoebill storks shake their heads? Do shoebill storks care about their young at all? How many eggs does the shoebill stork lay? What do they look like? What other names does the shoebill stork have? What measures are being taken to protect the shoebill stork? ![]() What eats a shoebill stork? Predators and Threats Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form. Subscribe to our FREE newsletter / download our FREE app to enjoy the following benefits.And wouldn’t that be a pity? Browse our famous packages for experience-based safaris, search for our current special offers and check out our camps & lodges for the best prices. ![]() A few weeks too early / late and a few kilometres off course and you could miss the greatest show on Earth. Travel in Africa is about knowing when and where to go, and with whom. HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF AFRICA GEOGRAPHIC: To comment on this story: Download our app here - it's a troll-free safe place □. The Bangweulu Wetlands Project is constantly working to protect the wetland and its wildlife from people, fire and poaching. The wetlands support a local fishing community that generates US$8m in fish which is traded, and provides an income for some 50 000 people. The Bangweulu Wetlands is listed as a RAMSAR sight and is home to 200 – 300 shoebills and the endemic black lechwe. If the villager had left the chick where it was the Bangweulu Wetlands Project would have employed him as a shoebill guard for that nest for the season. The community facilitator at the Bangweulu Wetlands Project has since visited him on several occasions to make sure he understands how the shoebill guard program works and that removing the chicks from their parents is a last resort. © African Parks/Bangweulu Wetlands © African Parks/Bangweulu Wetlands Seymour will also have his own ‘birdy ID’ – a ring that helps project mangers to identify different birds. When that days arrives Seymour will be fitted with a satellite transmitter to monitor progress. Seymour is now in a large enclosure in his natural environment where he will continue to be attended to until he is ready to fledge. Seymour however does have visiting hours in which people can come see him through a sheet of glass. Older shoebill chicks spend a vast amount of time by themselves in the wild while their parent is on the hunt. This simulates the parent dribbling water for the chick from its own beak.Īs Seymour got bigger he was fed only three times a day and bigger pieces of fish were left around the nest to encourage him to peck and forage. Watering is done by using a large syringe that is dribbled into the chick’s open mouth or onto the chick when it is hot. Since Seymour is a waterbird he needs to be watered. The sheet is also left in the enclosure so that there is always something familiar around for the chick. He was fed five to six times a day by a person in a grey sheet and sock puppet so as not to break the human form. ![]() © African Parks/Bangweulu Wetlands © African Parks/Bangweulu WetlandsĪs with crane-rearing, human contact is limited so as to prevent Seymour from imprinting. At night he was put in a quiet box with a hot water bottle and heavy blanket over it to stimulate brooding. Since then Seymour built up a robust appetite, continued to grow and spent most of his time with his wooden figure of a mother ‘protecting the nest’ as his parent would have done in the wild. Although unsure of the chick’s sex and not entirely in favour of naming wild animals the handlers christened the chick Seymour. Seymour arrived at the project, ravenous after living on a diet of cassava for two days. The man kept the bird at his home and later notified the project staff about its location. When he noticed footprints around the nest he genuinely believed the shoebill was at risk and took the baby bird into his care. A local villager heard stories that people from another nearby village were planning to steal the newly hatched shoebill. © African Parks/Bangweulu WetlandsĪfrican Parks employ guards to watch the nests every season to protect the nests from people and fire, all of which pose a threat to these prehistoric looking fowls. The chick was rescued by an environmentally conscious villager in Zambia’s Bangweulu Wetlands, and is now in the care of the Bangweulu Wetlands Project. So ugly he’s cute: Seymour, is a shoebill chick with a bottomless stomach, named ever so fittingly after Seymour in the Little Shop of Horrors. ![]()
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