Kenya risks “killing” its population by starvation; “fault” lies with the bird

Kenya is considering culling the bird population by name Read thisto prevent them from ending rice crops. The maneuver may resemble one carried out in other parts of the world to wipe out populations of invasive species. However, there is a big difference here. They are not invasive birds and in fact beneficial effect on ecosystems.

Therefore, this leads to the memory of another situation in which China years ago, he made a similar decision, but for sparrow populations. Not only did they not solve the problem, they made it worse. hungry situation in some parts of the country.

If Kenya does the same with quelea populations, it could be very dangerous. In Spain, a science communicator explained this in a thread on his Twitter account. Doctor Biobloggerbut several international media also supported it.

Kelea does not invade Kenya

A species is considered invasive when it rapidly spreads outside of its normal ecosystem. crowding out to native species. This can happen, for example, due to competition for resources.

He common kelea (kelea kelea) is a bird native to sub-Saharan Africa. In other words, it cannot be considered an invasive species in Kenya. Yes, it is true that it reproduces very effectively. So much so that it is considered the most numerous bird in the world, not counting domestic ones, with some Only 1,500 million copies.

This led to other countries such as SpainYes, it is considered an invasive species. However, in places where it is native, even with such a large population, it usually remains in balance with the ecosystem.

Why do you want to kill them?

In this case, in Kenya, they want to destroy the population of kelea, because they blame the bird for putting an end to 75% of the country’s rice production. Actually it is, but it is justified. These birds usually do not destroy crops. The problem is that a severe drought in the Horn of Africa destroyed the seeds they normally feed on, so they eventually moved to cultivated fields.

When it happens natural control by birds of prey. However, the Kenyan authorities complain that there are not enough of them to attack such a large kelea population. For this reason, they chose fumigation with a pesticide called fenthion. This is a problem because it is not only toxic to quelea. Also for other birds, such as those birds of prey that are so rare. And even for People. In addition, if we are talking about saving cultivated fields, then the medicine will obviously be worse than the disease, since fenthion also affects wormswhich contribute to soil porosity and underground nutrient transport, and beesso important for pollination.

For this reason, many environmental and conservation groups have begun to warn that these measures may end up being futile. catastrophe on many levels.

Termination of quelea in Kenya could upset ecosystem balance

We have already seen that quelea is not an invasive species. This means that they help maintain the balance of the ecosystems in which they live in relation to other species. For example, in addition to the grain they steal from the crops, they also they eat insects. Just those insects that cause pests What destroy crops. If quelea are removed, they can destroy any remaining crops.

Nothing good happened in China.

Tobias Roth (Unsplash)

IN 1957 and 1958, the Chinese government, under the chairmanship of Mao Zedong, began its own war against any animal that, in its eyes, could become a plague. It ranged from flies to rats and sparrows. The latter were marked by something similar to what happens in Kenya with quelea. They said they hit the grains harvest fieldsso the peasants were encouraged to do whatever they could to kill them. Lures and weapons were distributed among the population, which also came out loaded with drums to scare away the birds, which fluttered in fear until they dropped dead.

Shooting and biting baits were sometimes completely random, so they were also killed. dogs, pigeons, ducks, rabbits or wolves. The whole fauna was in danger because of the thirst for revenge of all those peasants who believed that these innocent animals were depriving themselves of their livelihood. But what he didn’t know was that they were the ones who gradually laid the bricks to build up a dangerous period of famine. It is said that over 1 million sparrows were killed. This freed the cultivated fields from the bites of small birds, but completely sold them out to the insect pests they normally feed on.

The situation became unbearable, so it was ordered to stop sparrow hunting. But it was already too late. Since the harvest was lost, we had no other choice but to import new populations of sparrows from Soviet Unionin order to restore that natural balance, the importance of which they finally understood in the worst way.

Experts warn that history could now repeat itself with kelea in Kenya. Therefore, it is urgent to seek intermediate solutions, which does not mean the destruction of the populations of such an important bird in this region of Africa. In your case, there is still time to change your mind.