(no subject)

[tree_and_leaf]

The North German station NDR does a good line in long, interesting but not breathtaking documentaries about the north German countryside (either about nature or daily life). I find them very relaxing.

I also, as a result, also know that there is a population of feral rheas in Mecklenburg. They have taken to it surprisingly well, but the farmers are starting to complain because they eat the oil seed rape...

(There is also, less surprisingly, a population of wolves, but the wolves don't eat the rheas, which is in many ways a shame, as I suspect it would instinctively swing the farmers to Team Wolf. As it is, the government is distributing allegedly wolf-proof fences to shepherds, and subsidising them buying guard dogs).

Comments

[nineveh_uk]

I knew that there were feral raccoons in Germany, but not that there were rheas. That has got to be a surprise to people who come across them!

It is a pity that the wolves can't be trained to eat the rheas.

[tree_and_leaf]

It is, isn't is?

[choco_frosh]

Yes; but given that rheas can weigh up to the average mass of a wolf, travel in groups, can run rather fast and (I presume) have an unpleasant kick, I'm not surprised that they're sticking to easier prey!

[tree_and_leaf]

Wolves aren't daft.

[matrixmann]

Why doesn't that make me wonder that wildlife cursorial bird can be around here?
Because breeding ostriches has long arrived somewhere in the middle of nowhere...

Team Wolf, I guess, would gladly take the addition of allies. Because people around here already don't like the politics that they're doing for the wolves from the side of the state. (Because the wolves just don't prove to be the pet dogs in practice which they're officially talked to be. They make it to kill cattle even despite the wolf-proof fences and other security measures that are supposed to keep them away.)

[satismagic]

Oh, I love the story of those rheas. XD

Sadly, there lots of anti-wolf people around. And ppl being just dumb about dealing with wolves, too. Like leaving a flock of sheep alone in a nature reserve next to the hunting grounds of a pack of wolves. And then being surprised that those wolves actually hunted some of the sheep. Like, well. D'OH.

[tree_and_leaf]

Yes, what did they think was going to happen?

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

The wolves may simply not understand that rheas are food that could be caught and eaten.

I had this problem with kittens once. Their mother brought them only dead mice which didn't teach them to hunt. So I went to the pet store and bought some feeder mice -- the clerk was freaked out by this -- and put each kitten into a box with a mouse. It took them a few minutes to figure out A) that a mouse was food, B) how to catch it, and C) how to open the package once they had it. But after that they had no trouble mousing on their own.

Wolves will scavenge if carrion is available. Therefore one approach would be to shoot the rheas and leave them where they fall. The wolves will get in the habit of eating them, and make the connection to live rheas. This is something any farmer could do.

More complicated would be naturalists teaching a captive pack of young wolves how to hunt rheas and then releasing them. But people already raise and release animals, so it's not much of a stretch.