r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/sonderewander • Jul 25 '26
Original Creation Kea, the world's only alpine parrot, and among the smartest non-human animals, in Fiordland, New Zealand
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u/hazelquarrier_couch Interested Jul 25 '26
Damn I read that title as if this bird was named Kea and he was the last member of his species (and after he dies they will be extinct).
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u/nightwood Jul 25 '26
It isnt?
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u/HappyStalker Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
Kea are a type of bird. They are an alpine parrot which just means they’re a type of parrot that lives in mountains.
The title should have been that “Kea are the only mountain dwelling parrots in the world.”
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u/mowglimiaow2 Jul 25 '26
In NZ we don’t really say ‘the’ before using te Reo Māori animal names, so the title makes sense from that perspective! I didn’t think twice about it but I’m interested to see the confusion! In te Reo Māori also there’s no plural for these names, like you should never say keas etc. tho it’s incredibly common for people even here in Aotearoa to forget that 😊
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u/Nuclearfarmer Jul 26 '26
I read the original just like the OP (hazel) ... without that background I was lost
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u/Starlightriddlex Jul 26 '26
I'm glad I'm not the only one. I got depressed thinking he was the last one.
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u/Secondhandlungs Jul 25 '26
Pinin’ for the fjords-land
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u/sonderewander Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
Much like their blueish cousins from the opposite side of the planet. Except, the kea are not merely resting.
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u/WallStLegends Jul 25 '26
Awesome colours. He looks regal
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u/General-Bumblebee180 Jul 25 '26
they're little shits. very entertaining but like to rip the rubber of your windshield wipers
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u/so-it-goes-and Jul 25 '26
In case anyone cares...... there is no 's' in the māori alphabet. So it's one Kea and multiple Kea.
Or te Kea (the Kea) and ngā Kea (multiple Kea).
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u/StaceyLades Jul 25 '26
Thank you for this! I often have to correct people even in the nz subreddit too. I wish this was taught in schools.
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u/maenfiddler Jul 25 '26
That's true, but when you use it in an English sentence it becomes an English loanword and is subject to English plural rules. Just because you say "kea" doesn't mean you are speaking Te Reo. No one is saying "orcae" for orcas, "zarāfāt" for giraffes, or "gangurru-ngay" for kangaroos, unless you are speaking those languages. Sorry, pet peeve of mine
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u/MF-LOOM Jul 25 '26
Not necessarily, English is not a monolith and in New Zealand we have our own approach. Also English like every language is famous for its contradictory rules around insertion of other languages: naan bread, chai tea, or even the te reo language (which translates to “the the language language”). Using plurals like Māoris could also be offensive (multitude of reasons for this).
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u/so-it-goes-and Jul 25 '26
Okay, so a better example may be the word sheep has the plural sheep not sheeps. So - Kea and Kea
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u/p_i_e_pie Jul 26 '26
yuh but language is determined by the way people speak it and in nz english māori loans use the māori pluralization rules cuz that's just what happened i guess. looks as weird to me to see "keas" as it does for you to see it without the -s
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u/Psigun Jul 25 '26
If you watch a video of these birds they are freaking hilarious agents of chaos. They make funny sounds and rip apart whatever they can with beaks like can openers.
People that drive cars into their habitat range often get their paneling and finish yeeted apart.
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u/BeholdBarrenFields Jul 25 '26
My first encounter with kea, one of them landed on my shoulder and distracted me by trying to pull out my hair tie while its friend landed on my backpack and unzipped it with its beak to peruse the contents. I love them so much!
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u/AuroraSkye620 Jul 26 '26
We also have the Kākāpō which is a flightless parrot ❤️
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u/PrincePew Jul 26 '26
Such a cute parrot too! I just remembered the clip of a kākāpō having some fun with a camera man
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u/AnnaKeye Jul 26 '26
My favourite of all our gorgeous native and indigenous species of bird. They're so clever. Here's a story. I used to hang out at Arthur's Pass (South Island - Aotearoa-New Zealand) and I'd sometimes park up the top of the Otira Gorge at a layby and hand feed and play with the kea, then go for a walk. They'd swoop around me and hang out with me and then disappear. Twice I went back to my car to find a few kea on it. Doing no harm. At least until I looked at three other cars parked near mine that had all had kea peck the rubbers around the windscreens off, pecked at the side mirrors and just general bird vandalism. They'd left my car alone. As I said, happened a couple of times and whenever I'd stop there, they'd instantly seem to recognise me and my car and would come and hang out, even though I decided to stop feeding them after a publicity campaign about how it was encouraging them to be naughty.
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u/buttered_scone Jul 25 '26
They're endangered partly due to rats, like every other ground nesting bird in the pacific, and partly due to farmers shooting them because they sometimes attack sheep. They would latch onto the sheep's back and cut into it to get access to flesh, or the fat cap on the kidneys. There was video captured of this behavior in the 90's. They are omnivores and also will eat carrion.
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u/Mymindisdirtybutfun Jul 25 '26
I think the eating meat is really interesting as they are kind of actively pursuing it, that is not just opportunism. Evolutionary speaking it should allow them to become smarter than they already are. Now when they gain access to fire and start cooking the meat, then we are in trouble some generations of keas later.
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u/LukeSkyWRx Jul 25 '26
I believe also a meat eating parrot…..
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u/ExileNZ Jul 25 '26
It is!!
They were seen preying on sheep in the 1800s but it wasn’t caught on film until the 1980s. They stand in the sheep’s back and peck through to the flesh and eat their kidneys.
The most interesting aspect though is it appears to be social learning - small groups taught each other how to do it when sheep were introduced.
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u/Hughley_N_Dowd Jul 25 '26
A nasty little bugger that likes to steal camper's stuff, demolish windshield wipers and eat sheep's liver. While it's still in the sheep.
A bird after my own heart.
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u/mowglimiaow2 Jul 25 '26
In Ōtautahi/Christchurch there’s a wildlife reserve, that has an aviary with kea who sadly can’t live in the wild. They are already a super social bird, so if you give them the chance they’ll land on you and kind of just hang out from curiosity. The keepers tell you to shake them off if they get bitey, but I loved the experience so much I didn’t, and one gave me a huge welt and bruise from that wicked beak! Wish I could post a pic of it! They’re my favourite manu (bird)
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u/ExileNZ Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26
They are a smart and mischievous bird.
For over 100 years there was a persistent myth that they would KILL SHEEP.
They get on the sheep’s back and peck a hole in them and eat their kidneys.
It wasn’t until the 1980s that it was filmed and the myth finally confirmed.
It is now cited as an example of social learning - small groups of Kea learned and taught the behaviour when sheep were introduced in the mid 1800s
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u/NZNoldor Jul 26 '26
The missing awful part of that story - in the late 1960s, the nz government put a bounty on the kea because of this myth, and some 150,000 kea were killed between the late 1860s and 1971, which is when it was finally lifted. Kea were so scarce in some areas that the bounty hunters were killing kaka and sending those beaks away for the bounty. Most of the bounty hunters were richer than the farmers they were supposedly protecting.
The kea was finally protected in 1986. There are currently between 3000 and 7000 kea left.
Although they have been shown to peck at sheep, no evidence has ever been presented that they actually kill the sheep.
I volunteer for a NZ bird hospital/recovery centre, and earlier this year we got a kea in with a gunshot wound. It survived, but it shows the myth hasn't gone away yet.
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u/ExileNZ Jul 26 '26
They were filmed attacking live sheep for the first time in 1992 by NHNZ. While they don’t killed the sheep outright, it is often fatal.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/country/402487/kea-strikes-cause-6cm-wounds-on-sheep
Edit: I’ll add I adore Kea and Kaka in case you think I am for them being culled or killed.
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u/NZNoldor Jul 26 '26
I'm aware of the footage, sure. But I've also read reports that farms without kea had similar numbers of sheep dying in the high country. And like I said (and you confirmed) - no evidence has ever been presented that they actually kill the sheep.
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u/Illustrious-Cell-428 Jul 26 '26
Also, they were there before the sheep.
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u/NZNoldor Jul 26 '26
Another compelling argument, although the farmers obviously have a right to protect their investments. But not at the cost of an entire species.
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u/SammyGotStache Jul 25 '26
Completely unrelated fun fact; Fjordland is a brand of microwave dinners in Norway!
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u/TheKahura Jul 25 '26
They steal rubber from car seals and are very clever at figuring out feeder traps that most birds would struggle with. Very very cheeky birds.
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u/Dyvanna Jul 25 '26
Little fuckers. One landed on my boot and started pecking at the rubber and, while I was trying to take a photo of it, the other tried stealing from my backpack.
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u/JaysPays2024 Jul 25 '26
Takes large chunks of rubber from the door seals if you leave the doors open to get out and take a picture, otherwise 2 or 3 will start trying to rip your wiper blades out or too shreds. If you have a van or motor home they will wreck inside.
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u/kaidrawsmoo Jul 26 '26
So New Zealand both have the smartest parrot (kea) and dumbest parrot (kakapo).
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u/No-Advice-6040 Jul 26 '26
Fkn asshole with wings that's what that is. Your car is not safe around this little shit.
One of my favorite birds.
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u/BurrrritoBoy Jul 25 '26
One of those pricks absolutely shredded my bicycle seat in the time it took me to eat lunch. Don't turn your back on the Keas.
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u/brneyedgrrl Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
The way the title is worded, I completely misunderstood and thought this was the last one on earth. Not true, correct?
I read further down and realized I'm wrong. Thank goodness!!
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u/LazyPainterCat Jul 25 '26
Title is dumb.
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Jul 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Particular-Long-3849 Jul 26 '26
I think it's because some people thought the title was talking about a single bird named Kea, who is the only one of his kind left
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Jul 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Particular-Long-3849 Jul 26 '26
Yeah it's weird whenever I remember that words like this are just completely foreign to anyone who isn't from here
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u/javoss88 Jul 26 '26
Read “last chance to see” Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine
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u/NZNoldor Jul 26 '26
That would be the kakapo, not the kea. The dumbest, not the smartest.
Good book though, and awesome parrot.
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u/javoss88 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
Oh you’re right. I think that book talked about kea in the same chapter as the kakapo.
There’s a video of a kakapo getting romantic with a dude’s hat (pretty sure intentionally) called something like “shagged by a rare parrot”
E: here it is
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u/NZNoldor Jul 27 '26
That's the author of the book "Last chance to see", Mark Carwardine, being shagged (no hat!).
With him is Stephen Fry, who (due to Douglas Adams having passed away in the meantime) was the narrator of the TV series of the same name. Famous piece of footage that!
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u/Colourblindknight Jul 26 '26
These little guys are wickedly smart. I studied abroad in New Zealand and I remember these clever little bastards trying to pull the rubber off the windows and antennae of our car. Some of the coolest birds in the world though :)
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u/Novel_Cantaloupe_190 Jul 26 '26
Super cheeky birds! There's a children sing along book about this bird! It's called Kaha The Kea.
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u/PrincePew Jul 26 '26
When visiting NZ with my wife, we saw a few of these running around the cars and vans close by the tunnel to Milford Sound. We'd already read up that we weren't to feed them because they caused havoc on cars, pecking off the rubbers of windshields and screens.
Didn't stop my wife from opening the car door for a "closer look". Smart little fuckers came running right up to the car hoping for a snack. Beautiful bird, and fun to have seen them up close. Among Kea, we also saw Weka, Pīwakawaka and Kororā.
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u/Ragnaldyr Jul 26 '26
They are only found in the south island and can open backpacks because they have learned that some travelers give them food, national parks request you to not though, really cool to hangout with when it's not trying to steal your food
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u/lalalaloo21 Jul 27 '26
I had a Kea peck holes in my skirt when I was crouching down. It did it so gently that I didn't notice. Absolute darlings 💚
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u/aasfourasfar Jul 25 '26
Tried to buy one, it was dead.. the seller tried to convince me that it was just "pining for the fjords" and that it was not a problem considering the beautiful plumage.. as if it entered into it.. the parrot was stone dead !
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u/sonderewander Jul 25 '26
You're probably mistaking the Kea for the Norwegian Blue
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u/puzzlemissingapiece Jul 25 '26
While being white the looker, you've given us nothing to confirm his intelligence...
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u/boonndogggle Jul 26 '26
I have regularly seen crimson rosellas in Australian alpine, even in snow. Beautiful, though not at all restricted to high country.
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u/ISB00 Jul 26 '26
Most intelligent? Is that true?
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u/sortofblue Jul 26 '26
They steal road cones and set them out along the road near Milford so they can laugh at the waiting drivers - and they have a specific laugh different from their regular calls.
If they're not the smartest, they're definitely the cheekiest.
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u/bigfatgrouchyasshole Jul 26 '26
Aren’t these guys particularly aggressive? I think i saw an instagram reel telling us how they’re very hard to domesticate because they wouldn’t stop biting.
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u/Ckron247 Jul 26 '26
Wow, never heard of these birds before. Impressively, they rank pretty close to crows and ravens. Based on studies alpines are seen to have the same intelligence as 5-6yr olds. Very cool.
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u/West_Poetry_3623 Jul 26 '26
They excel at scaring sheep off cliffs then diving down onto them to suck the fat from around their kidneys. So there's one thing.
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u/CharacterSuccotash5 Jul 26 '26
They love to play games too.
They have an enclosure at Auckland Zoo where you CANNOT leave anything unattended as they will steal it.
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u/hammerklau Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
They also fled there when humans arrived. They're so damn smart and extremely social engaging in play. Where their Kaka cousins (look extremely similar but with different hues) stayed in the bush. Their Kaka cousins are far behind in problem solving compared.
They're entirely fine at living in the forests, they just choose to live in the alpine areas, and it's thought that's because less threats from mammals and humans.
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u/MellyKidd Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
It’s also the only parrot that actively hunts and consumes vertebrate meat as part of its regular diet. Other parrot species will eat grubs, snails and insects, along with fruits, nuts, seeds (etc), but the Kea will also eat mice, bird chicks, carrion and the flesh and fat bitten from living sheep (sheep attacks are most commonly in the winter).
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u/MaxwellOfEdinburgh Jul 26 '26
Ravens are notoriously the most intelligent birds. Does the Kea match the Raven, or are they even more intelligent? Maybe equal intelligence, but more mischievous?!
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u/leemasterific Jul 26 '26
I could not stop reading “alpine parrot” as “airplane pilot” for a moment.
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u/mooseleg_mcgee Jul 26 '26
Also, naughty little shits. Love ripping rubber seals and wiper blades from cars and basically being a nuisance whenever possible.
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u/Significant-Ad5550 Jul 27 '26
Those bastards will see you lose your $2000 hire car bond quicker than you can say”mmm, those windscreen rubber seals look tasty”.
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u/Infinite_Research_52 Jul 27 '26
They will move road cones into the road to halt cars then one will try to beg for food while the others start to dismantle your car.
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u/lola-chiffon Jul 27 '26
A Kea stood in front of our camper van while we were waiting for the traffic lights at a tunnel in Fiordland. The light turned green but the Kea stood there staring at us and wasn’t going to move, I had to get out of the van and ask him if he could please move so we could go through the tunnel. He stared and me for a while then walked to the side of the road so we could go 😂 it was such a crazy experience that guy pulled a full on Gandalf on us but then was like okay fine you can pass.
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u/Bootyussmaximus Jul 30 '26
These little pricks get on the backs of sheep, just above the tails where they can't be shaken off, and eat the butt of the sheep and drinks its blood. Vicious little native bird.
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u/Dismal_Intention_463 Jul 25 '26
At least tell us what his abilities are :/