from ananova.com

Lazy birds given car to migrate south

Researchers have provided a flock of lazy and disorientated rare birds with a car and driver because they are incapable of migrating on their own.
Ornithologists from the Konrad Lorenz research centre in Gruenau in Austria have spent more than two years breeding the Northern Bald Ibis species.
They had to drive the birds to their winter quarters in the Maremma region in northern Italy by car after discovering they were unable to make the 500 mile trip on their own.
Dr Kurt Kotrschal from the Zoology Department at Vienna University said the birds were used to being taken care of and they refused to fly south.
He said: "The birds are used to the all-inclusive treatment at the research centre. So we had to pack the lazy birds into the car and drive them."
The small Ibis population, which had once been widespread in Austria until it was entirely wiped out in the Middle Ages, has lost its natural sense of orientation.
Experts who are now trying to bring the birds back to Austria are not only transporting the birds by car but they are also showing the migratory birds the way in hang gliders.
The bird which is about 80 centimetres tall with shiny black feathers usually takes between two and three weeks, depending on the weather, to make the journey.


Story filed: 12:43 Thursday 4th September 2003