Ibis

Molukkenibis ( Threskiornis molucca )

The ibises or glossy ibis ( Threskiornithinae ) are a subfamily of the ibises and spoonbills in the order Ciconiiformes. There are mainly bound to the water birds with long curved beaks.

Features

Ibises have a length of 50 to 110 cm. It is characterized by the long, slender and curved beak. This often serves to poke around in muddy bottoms for food, with the residents rather dry habitats it is inserted in crevices. The broad wings enable a quick, powerful flight.

Distribution and habitat

Worldwide Ibises inhabit the tropical, subtropical and temperate - warm zones. The typical habitat is the shores of lakes or slow flowing rivers. Both in open landscapes as well as in dense rainforests However, some species also live in steppes and savannas. The surviving populations of bald ibis even live in rocky semi-desert, with him the water bond is least pronounced.

Nutrition

Many species eat aquatic insects, insect larvae, small crustaceans and mollusks, more rarely, small fish and amphibians. The few species that live away from the water in drier areas, however, feed on grasshoppers, beetles, spiders and snails, less commonly, of lizards, snakes and mice. All ibises use their long beak to search for something to eat, by introducing it in mud and soil.

Reproduction

Because of the large accordance with the propagation of Löffler this topic is dealt with together so under ibises and spoonbills.

Ibises and humans

Interrelationships

A close relationship with the Ibis had the ancient Egyptians, who represented the god Thoth with the head of Ibisses. That ibises appeared annually on the flooding of the Nile in Egypt, the reason for their worship may have been. Ibis representations can be found on wall paintings, mummified ibises were discovered in graves. The mummification was very expensive, and even went so far that people filled the embalmed stomach of the animal with bird seed. The mummified birds were offered as votive offerings and placed in Felskatakomben. In a place of worship at Saqqara, archaeologists have discovered around 1.75 million such Ibisleichen. However, a misunderstanding is the name of Sacred Ibis, which is latter day. The assumption that it constitutes the revered by the ancient Egyptians bird is not assignable. Indeed, the sacred Ibis of the Egyptians, the bald ibis may have been, the lived in Egypt in ancient times and was replaced much later by the Holy Ibis.

As we know from the Historia Animalium by Conrad Gesner, the Northern Bald Ibis was widespread until the 16th century in the mountains of Europe, for example, in the Alps. The extinction of the only Central European Ibisses probably had several causes, hunting, landscape destruction and the cooling of the climate assumed to be essential.

Ibis, and in this case again waldrapps, also appear in the context of the biblical story of Noah's Ark, even if only in a locally common in eastern Anatolia detail. There was an Ibis, the Noah downhill led after the end of the flood from Mount Ararat to the upper Euphrates, where Noah was settled with his family. For this reason, the Ibis was honored with annual festivals in the area of Birecik.

Threat and protection

The forest Rapp, an earlier in the Mediterranean and Central Europe, widespread species is threatened with extinction. In addition to the tiny colony of Birecik and some other birds in Syria this Ibis lives mainly still in Morocco. There his number has increased again due to intensive protection measures, but still it is guided by the IUCN as critically endangered - given the former ubiquity of this bird a dramatic development.

More ibises, which are listed by the IUCN as endangered, are:

At risk: Straight neck Rapp

Endangered: Malagasy Sacred Ibis, Nipponibis (in Japan since 2003 extinct, the last colony in Shaanxi multiplies the past few years thanks to strict protection measures, which is why the bird is no longer classified as critically endangered since 2000 applies ).

Critically endangered: Weißschulteribis ( only in South Vietnam and in the center of Borneo, once widely spread over South East Asia ), Riesenibis ( only in southern Vietnam ).

Species

  • Threskiornis Schwarzkopfibis ( T. melanocephalus )
  • Molukkenibis ( T. molucca )
  • Stachelibis ( T. spinicollis )
  • Sacred Ibis ( T. aethiopicus )
  • Malagasy Sacred Ibis ( T. bernieri )
  • † Reunion Ibis ( T. solitarius )
  • Warzenibis ( P. papillosa )
  • Weißschulteribis ( P. davisoni )
  • Riesenibis ( P. gigantea )
  • Waldrapp (G. eremita )
  • Straight neck Rapp ( G. calvus )
  • Nipponibis ( N. nippon)
  • Hagedasch (B. hagedash )
  • Klunkeribis (B. carunculata )
  • Fleckenibis (B. rara )
  • Guineaibis (B. olivacea )
  • Stirnbandibis ( T. caerulescens )
  • Weißhalsibis ( T. caudatus)
  • Andenibis ( T. branickii )
  • Schwarzzügelibis ( T. melanopis )
  • Cercibis Langschwanzibis (C. oxycerca )
  • Grünibis or Cayenneibis (M. cayennensis )
  • Mohrenibis ( P. infuscatus )
  • White Ibis (E. albus)
  • Scarlet Ibis (E. ruber)
  • Braunsichler ( P. falcinellus )
  • Brillensichler ( P. chihi )
  • Schmalschnabelsichler ( P. ridgwayi )
  • Lophotibis Schopfibis (L. cristata )
406350
de