Australia: How 'bin chickens' learnt to wash poisonous cane toads
There are few Australian animals more reviled than the white ibis. It has earned the moniker "bin chicken" for its propensity to scavenge food from anywhere it can - messily raiding garbage and often stealing food right out of people's hands.
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"Ibis were flipping the toads about, throwing them in the air, and people just wondered what on earth they were doing," she told the BBC.
"After this they would always either wipe the toads in the wet grass, or they would go down to a water source nearby, and they would rinse the toads out."
She believes it is evidence of a "stress, wash and repeat" method that the birds have developed to rid the toads of their toxins before swallowing them whole.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-63699884
The toads have had a devastating effect on native wildlife since somebody who didn't do his homework imported them in 1930. While a few other species have learned to avoid the parts of the toad where the toxin is most abundant, the white ibis has figured out how to get rid of it entirely. The technique, as well as how fast it has spread all along the east coast of Oz, is absolutely astonishing.
And for those who don't know, enjoy. This doc was described at the time as "Monthy {ython meets Wild Kingdom."
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