This Easter We've Got a BIG Surprise for You!!
Drumrolls, please!!
Introducing our newest resident - the
charismatic Magpie Goose, hailing all the way from the shores of Northern
Australia!! Find out a bit more about this incredible wildlife species.
These tall birds, standing at 90 cm and weighing two kilos have a wholly black neck and head. Although the slightly hooked beak is quite small, an area of naked pink skin extending to the eye gives these birds a quirky look.
Interestingly, their odd looks perhaps owing to the fact that it is a very primitive wildfowl and its ancestors split from other wildfowl when the dinosaurs were still around. Magpie Geese is also the only living member of its genus and family with several fossil relatives known across the world. So, it is only fair to say their prehistoric ties with dinosaurs definitely make them a unique bird, one that you cannot miss catching a glimpse of during your next visit to WWT London Wetland Centre.
Magpie Geese referred to as one the oddest of wildfowl. At home in Northern Australia and Southern New Guinea, wild Magpie Geese nest in February, which is the middle of the wet season there.
They’ve got an overall scruffy look to them as they always seem to have feathers awry and mucky bits here and there. However, they certainly boast personality, with their loud honking voice and musky odour – once sniffed, never forgotten! They are mostly protected in their Australian homeland, but still face threats from loss of their wetland habitats.
