I’ve spent a lot of time watching the Australian Brushturkey and White Ibis over the last 2 years.
They always seem to be where ever i am.
Both are often thought of as pests here, the ibis in particular. Australian Brushturkeys are a protected species, so I think they cop it a bit less. Kind of like they've got a magical free pass, and this reflects their behavior. Ibis are often filthy and eat garbage, so they’ve become this thing adult human beings pick on and call names.
I think I relate to them a lot and something about the fact that most people consider them ordinary or pests to be made fun of appeals to me.
I saw this article about Ibis figuring out a way to eat poisonous cane toads the other day. It's great.
Ibis are often seen feeding on food dumped by humans, but citizen scientists are increasingly reporting the native species is dining out on toxic cane toads.
Watergum's Emily Vincent says ibis have developed a "stress and wash" method to avoid getting poisoned by cane toad. Biology professor Rick Shine says the method would be effective in ridding toxins from the toad. Cane toads were introduced into Australia in 1935.
Gold Coast coordinator of Watergum's Cane Toads program Emily Vincent said the "stress and wash" method had been viewed numerous times by citizen scientists.
"It's quite amusing to watch and it's quite different from other native species and their methods of eating them," she said.
"The ibis will pick up cane toads and they will flick them about and stress out the toads."
"What this does is it makes the cane toads release toxins from the parotoid gland at the back of their neck, which is their defence mechanism when they're faced with predators.
"Then they'll take them down to the creek and wash them."
