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For the Love Of Nature, Art and Bad Humor
A Comic Gallery of Creative Expression in the Pursuit of Knowledge
Limpkins
Aramus guarauna, carrao (Spanish), courlan (French) or crying bird
LIMP-kins- ’cause early European settlers thought
they walked with a limp.
They don’t, but OK, settlers.
Were the limpkins hangin’ with mermaids too?
They have a creepy bird call.
The creepy bird call was used as jungle noise in
Tarzan films and helped voice the hippogriff in
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Limpkins are fancy.
They eat escargot every day.
All day. Every meal. More escargot please. Always.
In fact, they're so devoted to escargot that they
evolved body parts just to more easily eat their
beloved escargot.
Their bills are shaped like tweezers and curve
to the right just like the right-handed curve of their
escargot holder, an apple snail shell.
They’ll eat mussels, insects, crustaceans, lizards, frogs
and even worms when there is an escargot shortage.
But really, they just want an all-you-can-eat snail innards buffet. Just like cruise ship passengers.
Also just like humans-
some mate for life...
some don’t.
Unlike humans, their babies hatch and leave the
nest pretty much on day one.
They follow their parents around for a while though.
Presumably motivated by the promise of multiple
and irresistible, raw, slimy, snail carcasses.
References:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Limpkin/overview
https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/limpkin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limpkin
https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profiles/birds/waterbirds/limpkin/
https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/science/five-facts-limpkins/
https://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/nature/limpkin.htm
Special thanks to Jay Exum, Ph.D. Wildlife Ecology for his expert fact checking!
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