An army of 700,000 specially trained ducks and chickens has been mobilised to help fight China's biggest locust plague in 25 years. The birds, which are taught to pursue and eat locusts at the sound of a whistle, are part of a national campaign that includes 280,000 people backed by crop-dusting planes and special locust-killing micro-organisms imported from Britain. Swarms of locusts have destroyed more than 1.6 million hectares of crops in 11 provinces in the north and east of China, and 3.8 million hectares of grassland in the far western region of Xinjiang. The birds are used in Xinjiang where they are raised and trained under contract to the local government.
Zhao Xinchun, deputy head of the Xinjiang Locust and Rat Control Office, says: "Farmers knew that chickens were very fond of eating locusts, so we did some tests with a few hundred birds before spreading the idea more widely." The chickens have now been reinforced with 100,000 ducks, which can each consume up to 400 locusts a day. "Farmers found that ducks can eat more than chickens, are tougher than chickens in bad weather and do not get eaten by eagles or weasels." The birds associate the sound of whistles with feeding, Mr Zhilo says.
Scientists are also planning to use a special parasite, metarhiziumflavoviride, which grows inside the locusts' bodies and prevents them from absorbing nourishment. The technique, believed to be safer than using chemical pesticides, was imported from Britain in 1996. China is suffering from an acute water shortage and locusts are thriving on dry stretches of the Yellow River. - Daily Telegraph
 A man found an eagle's egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All his life the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking he was a barnyard chicken. He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled. And he would thrash his wings and fly a few feet into the air. Years passed and the eagle gre...
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 The ostrich is the largest living bird. Adult males stand nearly 8 feet in height and weigh between 140 to 230 pounds.
The ostrich is perfectly adapted to a mode of life that depends on running to escape predators.
It has evolved a cloven hoof consisting of only two toes, similar to that of the other animals that share its plain's existence.
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 Order: Falconiformes, Family: Accipitridae Snail Kites can be found in both South and Central America. Some are also found in Mexico and Cuba. The United States also has a small population concentrated in Florida.
Mass: 340 to 567 g.
Snail kites are medium-sized hawks, weighing from 12-20 oz. They are about 14-16 inches long and have a wingspan of 43-36 inches. The females are very slightly smaller than the male.
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 The Kuranda area of far north Queensland is a key zone for the endangered Cassowary, the birds around Cassowary House have raised 7 chicks since June 1998, with another male a couple of kilometres along the same road having a similar record and currently having 4 chicks. In January 2002 we had a new female appear, and occasionally join with the family group, though the regular female soon drives ...
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 Family: Alcidae The puffin's most striking feature is its large, brightly colored bill.
Early sailors dubbed the puffin the "sea parrot" because of its stout body, short wings, and orange or red webbed feet, which are placed far back on its body.
Males and females have the exact same markings. It's unknown whether this confuses the birds, but it certainly confuses bird-watchers.
During the summer...
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![A Talk with Irene Pepperberg [Excerpt]](http://www.animals-pictures-dictionary.com/files/images/308.jpg) One of my students was cleaning up the laboratory; we recycle whatever we can, so she was collecting all the empty bottles, throwing them in a bin, separating out the caps and putting them on the counter where Griffin, an African grey parrot, was sitting. She called me over and said, "You told me that parrots are destructive foragers and that they don't really put things together, so come her...
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