Lazy Birds

‘BIRDS have notoriously small brains. In their defence, they can only know what they have been taught – and a flock of Northern Bald Ibis had no idea where south was.

Having been born and reared at the Konrad Lorenz research centre in Gruenau in Austria, the birds had no idea how to migrate.

So the researchers called them a car and drove them to their winter quarters in the Maremma region in northern Italy.

Dr Kurt Kotrschal, from the Zoology Department at Vienna University, said: ‘The birds are used to the all-inclusive treatment at the research centre. So we had to pack the lazy birds into the car and drive them.”

Posted: 11th, September 2003 | In: Strange But True Comment | TrackBack | Permalink