{"id":14406,"date":"2022-07-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-03T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=14406"},"modified":"2022-09-16T09:05:59","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T07:05:59","slug":"natures-weirdest-animals-shoebill-stork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/2022\/07\/04\/natures-weirdest-animals-shoebill-stork\/","title":{"rendered":"Nature\u2019s weirdest animals: Shoebill stork"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
NATURE\u2019S WEIRDEST ANIMALS\u2026<\/span><\/h5>\n\n

Shoebill stork<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

At times vilified for its supposedly menacing demeanour, the shoebill stork deserves better. Yes, it\u2019s a solitary loner that picks off its prey one at a time. Yes, it has an enormous, shoe-shaped beak that can kill a baby croc or wrangle a lungfish. And yes, its stare is somewhat intense \u2013 think Paddington Bear meets Vinnie Jones. It also doesn\u2019t help that the bird is physically intimidating. <\/p>\n\n

This freshwater swamp specialist from eastern Africa stands over a metre tall, has a wingspan of up to 75cm, and its sharp, clogshaped bill grows up to 24cm long. <\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s also slow, purposeful and utterly relentless. Shoebills are stealth predators. They can stand motionless for hours, before attacking, shaking, crushing and then swallowing their prey, and yet, this relative of the pelican is so much more than some villainous caricature. <\/p>\n\n

For one thing, it poos on its own legs. Not so scary now, eh? <\/p>\n\n

Known as urohidrosis, it\u2019s a messy but deliberate habit that helps the bird to stay cool. The shoebill is similarly nonconformist in the air, where it has one of the slowest flapping rates of any bird. It takes just 150 beats per minute to keep this impressive animal aloft. HP<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n

<\/div>
\n

Email your questions to<\/span>
questions@sciencefocus.com<\/a>
or submit on Twitter<\/span>
@sciencefocus<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

IMAGE: GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NATURE\u2019S WEIRDEST ANIMALS\u2026 Shoebill stork At times vilified for its supposedly menacing demeanour, the shoebill stork deserves better. Yes, it\u2019s a solitary loner that picks off its prey one at a time. Yes, it has an enormous, shoe-shaped beak that can kill a baby croc or wrangle a lungfish. And yes, its stare is somewhat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":14686,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"81","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"81","purple_seq_number":"2","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"2","purple_source_article":"article_81-2.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_81-2.xml","purple_source_issue":"July-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"July-2022","purple_external_id":"July-2022-81-2","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"July-2022-81-2","purple_issue_code":"|0000089655||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000089655||","purple_android_product":"2022sciencefocusjuly","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"2022sciencefocusjuly","purple_ios_product":"2022sciencefocusjuly","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"2022sciencefocusjuly","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"0f422ad1-c939-476d-9f82-a410052ad4c3","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-07-05T09:18:46Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"74433bb3-dcbf-468d-9694-7a0a296c0576","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-07-06T12:57:09Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABw==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AdEM7s9y_Ro2WlHoKKWwFdg","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[30],"tags":[15],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-1141719408.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-1141719408.jpg",900,1372,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-1141719408-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-1141719408-197x300.jpg",197,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-1141719408-768x1171.jpg",768,1171,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-1141719408-672x1024.jpg",672,1024,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-1141719408.jpg",900,1372,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-1141719408.jpg",900,1372,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"NATURE\u2019S WEIRDEST ANIMALS\u2026 Shoebill stork At times vilified for its supposedly menacing demeanour, the shoebill stork deserves better. Yes, it\u2019s a solitary loner that picks off its prey one at a time. Yes, it has an enormous, shoe-shaped beak that can kill a baby croc or wrangle a lungfish. And yes, its stare is somewhat…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14406"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14406"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15585,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14406\/revisions\/15585"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}