(ORDO NEWS) — A family of local residents, vacationing in the vicinity of the New Zealand city of Dunedin, was robbed by a large local kea parrot. He stole their video camera and then flew off with it to rip open with his beak.
There remains a record of the kea flight – a rather rare occurrence, since usually it is not possible to fix the cameras on these birds, which the locals call “mountain clowns”.
Kea is a rather large parrot, up to 40-50 centimeters long and weighing up to a kilogram, found only in New Zealand.
Being dexterous and quick-witted, he steadily tries to get food from the anthropogenic elements of the landscape: for example, occasionally these birds peck out fat from sheep (mostly already dead), and also cause damage to the roofs of cars with their beaks, believing that something edible can be found there.
Although farmers are wary of kea, tourists and townspeople perceive them calmly: such parrots are very playful and often amuse people around them.
This time, the wild kea spent time on the balcony, where tourists filmed it with a GoPro. Having seized the moment, he suddenly jerked the camera with his beak and immediately flew away.
Having flown away at a decent distance, the bird sat on a stone and tried to gouge the stolen thing with its beak. Although the body of the device was damaged, it itself remained operational.
Realizing that it did not work out to profit, the kea threw inedible prey. At this time, the Verhel family tried to catch up with their GoPro, guided by the loud calls of parrots (kea often move in groups). The younger member of the family found a rock ledge where the camera lay. Here is a recording of what happened:
On the same hiking trip, the Kea once again robbed the Verkhels, stealing cups from their rucksack. This time, however, irrevocably. However, tourists are not upset and believe that, in general, the kea was well entertained.
Oddly enough, random videos like this can go a long way in studying animal behavior. The fact is that today field zoologists observe animals (in hours) in total less than amateurs.
It was due to the filming of the latter that it was possible to fix how parrots decorate themselves with the help of means made by their beak from improvised materials, or how they use other improvised means to change the parameters of their voice.
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