All you need to know about the invasive species of britain.
For the people who don't know, invasive is an animal that can be found in a country, but isn't native there. For example the Brown Rat was actually only native to Central Asia but were intr...
The first invasive species from Africa is here, it's the sacred ibis and it's basically just the lesser-known, less colourful scarlet ibis... and it's also a pest.
The Spread
How did they spread into Britain? Well it's time we blame the rest of Europe. During the 1970s and 80s several European zoos thought to themselves "free-flying zones are cool, people would love to see that! But what animal should it be? A Macaw? Cockatoo? Parakeet? TOUCAN? You know how about a scarlet ibis." NO, instead they were looked at the 30s style version of it and said let's give that a whirl and see how good of an idea it will be. (It wasn't a good idea) and the birds just got off.
As many as 1,200 pairs were breeding in France ALONE were roaming in the early 2000s. British sightings began in 1995, the only assumption as to how they got there was wandering away from the continent. Maybe they saw Great Britain and thought it was Madagascar, stupid birds amirite?
Fun Facts
The sacred ibis was worshipped by the ancient Egyptians as the god Thoth, these birds were often mummified and then buried with Pharaohs
The Sacred Ibis is an ancient species with fossil records found back 60 million years ago, that's only (it's short in dinosaur years, probably) 5 million more away from being face to face with a Spino, mad.
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Thoth
Problems
You've probably realised by now, invasive species are just dickheads, and you're completely right. Because it doesn't change with these mfers.
The twats are basically just bigger pigeons, eating all sorts of stuff from the rubbish piles, and then of course they just hate the native wildlife. One time two of them ate 30 different nests of sandwich terns in the space of four hours, greedy sods.
I think ibis' are just cheeky buggers anyway, because a sub-species (the white ibis) which is a NATIVE animal is still a pest to the Aussies to the point they just call them bin chickens.
Population Status
Least concern (Population decreasing)
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Couldn't be bothered searching too much so I just nicked this off of nature spot to let yous know the sacred ibis hotspots across the isles, the darker blue areas are the ones where they're more common.
As you can see Scotland and Ireland are safe... for now.
Diet
These are omnivorous scavengers (which you probably picked up from the bin dipper fact before) and they'll obviously eat anything but here's the stuff they'll mostly eat, including; grasshoppers, insect larvae, amphibians, crustaceans, frogs fish, small reptiles, eggs, carrion, snakes, other small birds and of course, rubbish.
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Size and Weight
It's large for a wading bird, around 75 centimetres (30 inches) in length and has a wingspan of 112-124 centimetres (44-49 inches)
It weighs 1.35 kilos (3 ponds)
Native Location
To find these in their NATURAL habitat, you go to the south of the Sahara and Madagascar.
Other areas where they've been introduced and are invasive include several European countries, Taiwan and of course Florida.
Habitat
It thrives in large colonies near waterways throughout Africa. It inhabits wetlands and mud flats.
If you want to find these in Britain, the east coast is a good place to look for them or just go to Leicester or Rutland and look through a couple bins.
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This was taken in the UK, cool.
Anyway what do YOU think of these running round England and Wales? Do you think they're cool? Do you think they're just worthless bin chickens? Either way, they're little pests.
