11-17-2020, 05:46 PM
https://www.independent.co.uk/environmen...24303.html
For millennia, the skies over Britain were home to one of the planet’s most enormous flying birds – the Dalmatian pelican – until they were hunted to extinction almost 2,000 years ago.
Now, a new rewilding effort which aims to expand the UK’s marshlands could see the belated return of these huge freshwater birds.
The UK’s Wildlife Trusts is already working to restore and protect the country’s wetlands, and plans drawn up by naturalist and rewilding advocate Ben Macdonald make the case for a careful reintroduction of the birds in the near future.
From bill to tail, Dalmatian pelicans grow up to six feet in length, and have wingspans of up to 11.5 feet (3.5m) – dwarfing the UK’s existing largest bird, the common crane, which has a wingspan of up to 2.4 metres. Its size means it rivals the wingspan of the largest albatross species, and it is among the heaviest flying birds.
A 3.5-metre wingspan... those sound like quite magnificent-looking birds! Though, they also sound pretty cumbersome, so it's not really surprising that they were hunted to extinction in the UK .
I don't expect that'll happen again if they're re-introduced here - although, I am a bit worried that birds of this size might wreak havoc on the local ecosystem...
For millennia, the skies over Britain were home to one of the planet’s most enormous flying birds – the Dalmatian pelican – until they were hunted to extinction almost 2,000 years ago.
Now, a new rewilding effort which aims to expand the UK’s marshlands could see the belated return of these huge freshwater birds.
The UK’s Wildlife Trusts is already working to restore and protect the country’s wetlands, and plans drawn up by naturalist and rewilding advocate Ben Macdonald make the case for a careful reintroduction of the birds in the near future.
From bill to tail, Dalmatian pelicans grow up to six feet in length, and have wingspans of up to 11.5 feet (3.5m) – dwarfing the UK’s existing largest bird, the common crane, which has a wingspan of up to 2.4 metres. Its size means it rivals the wingspan of the largest albatross species, and it is among the heaviest flying birds.
A 3.5-metre wingspan... those sound like quite magnificent-looking birds! Though, they also sound pretty cumbersome, so it's not really surprising that they were hunted to extinction in the UK .
I don't expect that'll happen again if they're re-introduced here - although, I am a bit worried that birds of this size might wreak havoc on the local ecosystem...
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