Why Don’t They Eat Millions of Ducks in China?

foreign this llama doesn't come between the Coyote and the Sheep because it's stupid it's actually their protector a professional bodyguard a guard llama is a special animal used in farming to protect sheep goats chickens or other livestock from predators like coyotes dingoes dogs foxes and the like yes llamas can really do that moreover llamas have been known to sometimes kill coyotes that decide to hunt the animals they protect although this is more of an exception to the rule llamas aren't exactly prone to attacking but they are effective against lone predators and just check out the statistics according to a 1990 study the average loss to Predator attacks dropped from 21 to 7 after the introduction of the Guard llama other studies say that in more than 50 percent of cases llamas have completely eliminated any livestock losses but how come llamas turned out to be excellent bodyguards the reason is that they're instinctively Vigilant and when something goes wrong llamas know how to draw attention to an intruder by making a startling alarm call that sounds like a rusty hinge also llamas can walk menacingly toward a predator or even run toward it chasing it kicking it and spinning must be very frustrating to be a formidable predator and be spit on by a llama this llama notices the danger and reports it it then begins to watch the Intruder closely often this is quite enough to intimidate the Predator but if the menacing look doesn't work the Llama won't hesitate to Chase and stomp on the intruder if the Predator doesn't Retreat fast enough needless to say effective guarding requires certain conditions single male llamas are best suited for this kind of work as they become attached to their charges especially when they're still small this llama reacts aggressively even when strangers simply approach the Sheep many sheep and goat breeders note that a special bond quickly develops between the Lambs and their llama guard here's a llama that's bonded with a lamb and so will protect it from any predators and you know what the best part is the llamas don't need to be trained for this well at least no one trains them on purpose guarding skills are specific to certain individuals within a species rather than being Universal not all llamas possess the ability to guard as some may simply not care what's going on around them but what about not a single bodyguard but an entire Army this looks like an intimidating swarm of insects but when you look closely it's clear that these are ducks and Ducks are real biological weapons no they don't spread deadly diseases but they can be more effective than pesticides when it comes to controlling locusts at least that's what Chinese experts believe when Pakistan suffered a locust plague a few years ago China suggested using feathered weapons turns out that one duck can eat more than 200 locusts a day and if you gather an entire Army of a hundred thousand Birds it's easy to calculate that it can destroy up to 20 million insects per day when it comes to Locust plague this is a real miracle true the idea of rescuing Pakistan with the help of ducks was later abandoned the country's climates very dry therefore not suitable for water loving Birds however in certain regions you can indeed find flocks of ducks defending crops this is a practice that humans have employed for centuries to protect their harvests there's even a name for this technique integrated rice duck farming growing ducks and rice together in irrigated Paddy Fields was documented in China for about 600 years and Chinese Farmers practiced it for centuries until synthetic nitrogen fertilizers and chemical pesticides came along it's easier and faster to use them but ever since mankind became concerned about environmental issues things have started to change in 2016 there was even an official announcement farmers in China Japan Iran and France are gradually transitioning to ancient methods of rice cultivation using more birds and fewer pesticides in The Paddy Fields the Ducks are in charge of two important jobs keeping insects away from the crops and weeding they tear up weeds and leave their manure as organic food for the plants so rice producers don't need artificial fertilizers in short it's a win-win no matter how you look at it but why are ducks so good at it there are plenty of poultry breeds in 2000 China shipped thousands of ducks and chickens through xinjiang where another swarm of locusts destroyed more than 9 million Acres of agricultural plots although both species of birds worked tirelessly researchers found that ducks were the more voracious eaters and they were also easier to herd into cohesive manageable groups than chasing chickens which aren't very good at discipline one hand is claimed to be able to eat only 70 locusts a day when compared to 200 insects a duck can handle the choice becomes obvious [Music] however ducks are not only good at guarding Paddy fields in South Africa they work in the winery no they don't squeeze the juice out of their grapes with their feet although I've already pictured that in my mind atypical Vineyard is neat rows of lush green Vines their leaves swaying gently in the wind looks very Serene now imagine some 800 Ducks shattering this perfect scene the winery in Stellenbosch breeds these birds to help run the farm the ducks have been working here since 1984 and the estate is even a breeding program for the birds the Ducks perform the same tasks as they do on Paddy Fields they help control snails and other pests and their waste acts as a natural fertilizer for the land additionally the ducks have become quite popular among tourists but what if it wasn't so dry in Pakistan and the Ducks could actually live there would they have been able to handle the locusts well ducks are indeed capable of clearing areas of pests but in this particular case they wouldn't be able to make a direct real life difference in the outcome of the Locust battle roughly 40 to 80 million of these insects can be found in a swarm covering about 247 Acres the Swarm itself can stretch across thousands of Acres when you consider these numbers it's easy to see why Ducks may not be as effective as they can seem anyway let's leave them to deal with fewer enemies there's a term for using animals to control other animals and it's called bio control although the term was only coined to 1919 people have been using this approach for centuries because you don't need to label something so it would work this is how Citrus crops were protected in China in the 300s A.D yes the first account of using some insects to control others dates back to 300 A.D back then in China people traded ant nests attached to branches Farmers bought them put them on Citrus farms and thus protected crops from insect pests actually this is a common example of biological control when some insects are introduced into an area foreign to them to exterminate other insects that are harmful to humans for example this is how common ladybugs can save people millions of dollars farmers use them in Cotton Fields to kill the aphids but we're not going to talk about them because well these bug wars aren't that exciting when compared to how people use vertebrates even when nothing good comes out of it for example take the mongooses that were brought to Hawaii on a noble Mission the animals were supposed to kill rats that's what these rodents are doing in the sugar cane Fields I guess it's not pleasant to see this kind of thing every day especially when sugar cane is your source of income that's why wealthy plantation owners fought rats so desperately that they introduced mongooses to Hawaii in the 1880s it must be said that reports from the sugar industry in the early 20th century said that mongooses were effective in reducing the number of rats mice and insects that's hardly surprising the Mongoose is a small yet voracious Predator that eats everything in its path rodents insects lizards snakes No One Is Safe no one a really determined group of mongooses can even scare off a really dangerous predator in short the solution seemed perfect but only at first glance when plantation owners came up with the brilliant idea of bringing Hawaii they didn't consider one thing rats and mongooses have different schedule the Mongoose would only go out hunting during the day while the rats would get their sweet cane treed at night thus the two species almost never crossed paths but this wasn't the worst thing the introduction of mongooses to Hawaii led to disaster not only because they failed to contain the growing rat population mongooses in Hawaii became an invasive species the native bird species evolved in the absence of mammalian Predators so they were completely unprepared for such a voracious foe as a result mongooses are now responsible for the elimination of at least eight bird species in Hawaii the local Turtle population has also declined as mongooses eat their eggs people have shifted their focus from rats to mongooses but the damage caused by these mongooses still amounts to a significant annual loss of 50 million dollars so as it often happens humanity went a bit too far this is a giant rice rat a species that can only be seen as a stuffed display at the national museum of natural history in Paris as it's become extinct through the actions of humans and mongooses these animals lived in the Lesser Antilles and then European settlers came there they apparently considered the giant rice rats pests threatening coconut plantations so the settlers deliberately introduced mongooses to protect their crops from pests as you can imagine the giant rice rats were not thrilled with that and don't forget other predators that came to the islands with humans like dogs and cats the felling of trees was also a factor anyway the remaining giant rice rats died in the early 20th century [Music] the situation around owls wasn't always as heartbreaking or rather it started with problems to make room for cultivated land trees and other smaller plants are often eliminated but deforestation pushes many animals out of their homes there's a big downside to this and not just because the animals are suffering some of them are natural Predators who control the pest population once the land was cleared for agricultural purposes in a small farming Village in Indonesia a significant number of rats and mice appeared despite the villager's Relentless efforts to eliminate these unwanted visitors nothing seemed to do the trick finally one resourceful farmer decided to harness the power of nature by introducing owls onto his property after all Alice possess remarkable rodent hunting abilities with a single bar now capable of catching around a thousand small Critters within a year and it really worked however the farmer didn't stop there he set up the natural predator program the owls are now busy catching rats and mice in the fields around the village of telogawiru he's also breeding owls in the village in about four months the young birds are released into the wild and in 2011 the farmer began installing special boxes in which the owls live similar boxes can be found in California where the barn owls help protect Vineyards from rodents but back to Hawaii when mongooses didn't do the trick in the 1950s people decided to get barn owls there they were released for the same purpose to control the population of rats in the sugar cane Fields along with owls they also brought herons as a solution for the flies that plagued the cattle but something went wrong again this baby barn owl was photographed flying out of the underground nest of the gadfly petrol an endemic Hawaiian bird and this is what the researchers found in the nest the next day this was all that was left with the poor gadfly petrol yes the barn owls forgot about rodents and started hunting endemic bird species that were not prepared for the arrival of predators this problem is still relevant today and people are trying to figure out what to do about it it's necessary to save the local species and to cause as little harm to the barn owls as possible after all it's not their fault they were brought to the islands however people took their efforts with starlings to the next level introducing these birds to various parts of the world just like always no one expected any trouble as it seemed like a great idea the common Starling was introduced to Australia to help control crop damaging insects the first settlers looked forward to their arrival believing that the birds would also be useful in pollinating flax the staple crop of the area they even set up nests for starlings on farms and near crops that's how much people wanted these birds nearby in 1857 starlings were introduced to Melbourne and two decades later to Sydney imagine everyone's surprise when it turned out that they do more harm than good that's because starlings aren't voracious birds that gladly eat fruits and seeds the very things they're supposed to be protecting starlings are also quite aggressive not afraid to fight other birds for food and territory they also occupy both nesting sites and even the nests themselves so that other species have trouble raising chicks eventually starlings have greatly increased their numbers in just a couple of decades and now fly around the continent in huge scary flocks with 3 000 starlings in each by the 1920s starlings were widespread in Victoria Queensland and New South Wales and by then they were considered pests at one point people even started eliminating starlings and over three decades they exterminated about 55 000 of them common starlings were also brought to the territory of New Zealand when he first settlers arrived on the islands they began to actively cultivate the land after the mass destruction of the bushes to create Farmland the ecology was so disrupted that the country was overwhelmed by plagues of insects they were in the words of an old agricultural bulletin crawling over the land and vast hordes the Gathering of caterpillars was a site that horrified the agriculturists the insects were deprived of their usual food so they attacked in Mighty armies devouring crops in their path and leaving Fields empty as if nothing had ever been sown on them overall that was a horrible thing to behold and one of the few means available to Farmers at that time was sheep large herds were released into caterpillar infested terrain where the Hooves of the animals worked even more efficiently than rollers yes people were literally crushing insects with sheep but that wasn't enough to stop the invasion of caterpillars they even tried to dig deep ditches local birds were of great help farmers even began to consider them their best friends however these birds not used to coexisting with humans didn't want to settle near the fields then people decided to call in help in the form of good old-fashioned starlings and sparrows a batch of 17 Birds was imported around 1862. over the next 20 years a large number of birds were landed and released in various parts of the country [Music] but here's the question people were familiar with starlings after all they knew that these birds fed on seeds why were they introduced to new territories then there's actually an explanation imported Birds had to have three qualities first they had to be non-migratory otherwise the time and money spent on their acclimatization would be wasted second they had to be prolific breeders so that they can reproduce and soon defeat insect pests and most importantly they had to be able to eat both insects and seeds otherwise they simply would not have survived the winter so people took their chances today starlings live in New Zealand Australia South Africa North and South America Fiji and several Caribbean islands they came to all these places thanks to humans but for different reasons starlings were not always brought in for insect control but that's a story for another video well if you really wonder why imported animals constantly become a problem the answer is people prioritize their own benefits without considering the potential consequences and often lack the ability to anticipate them ceiling

Channel: WATOP

Views: 874,008

Keywords: WATOP, Wa Top

Id: IXb8r7hVR-U

Length: 16min 33sec (993 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 27 2023