When poachers hunt for rhinos, birds can help the rare wild animals. The red-billed oxpecker likes to take a seat on the back of the rhinos.
Melbourne (dpa) - alarm against poachers: According to researchers, maggot hackers - small birds - can warn rhinos of approaching people and thus offer protection against hunters.
Scientists from Australia and the United States have been following black rhinos and red-billed oxpeckers, which are often on the back of the rhinos. They found out that rhinos without maggot hackers on their backs noticed an approaching person in only 23 percent of the attempts, as the scientists explained in a study published in the journal "Current Biology". With a bird's alarm, the rhinos noticed the human every time.
Black rhinos are threatened by poaching. The population in Africa has recently recovered somewhat, but there are only around 5,630 animals in the wild, according to the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The rhinos have very poor eyesight but good smell. Therefore, a hunter, if he is on the windward side, can get up to about five meters from the animal, explains researcher Roan Plotz from Victoria University in Melbourne.
Red-billed oxpeckers often sit on the back of a rhino and feed ticks there, among other things. When a person approaches, the birds often make a sound, as the researchers explain. The rhinoceros would almost always turn in such a way that it faces the wind-facing side - the direction from which the animal is least able to perceive odors and from which poachers are most likely to come.
The red-billed oxpecker is called Askari wa Kifaru in Kiswaheli, a language spoken in East Africa - that means something like "guardian of the rhinoceros". People in Africa have known the benefits of the bird for the large gray mammals for a long time.
World Conservation Union (IUCN) for black rhino