That goofy-looking bill clapped onto the front of the shoebill’s face may not look very frightening, but it’s actually a lethal tool. His behaviour is natural greeting behaviour, but it reminds people of Buckbeak, the hippogriff in the Harry Potter stories. If the visitors don’t bow, Sushi moves away and won’t let them touch him. If visitors bow to him, he bows as well and allows the people to touch him. In most places it is illegal to own a shoebill stork as a pet, and they are threatened with extinction, which makes each individual important for the survival of the species. Shoebills are quite large, making them difficult to house. These fascinating birds can reach 5 feet in height and are classified as critically endangered, with only 3,300 to 3,500 mature shoebills still living in the wild. As birds evolved from their prehistoric cousins, they gave up their teeth-tipped snouts and developed beaks in their stead. They evolved from dinosaurs hundreds of millions of years ago. Yusuke Miyahara/FlickrThe shoebill looks prehistoric because, in part, it is. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature estimates that there are only between 3,300 and 5,300 adult shoebills left in the world, and the population is going down. The shoebill stork will not threaten humans, but will only stare right back at them. Researchers studying these birds have been able to come within 6 feet of a shoebill stork on its nest. Shoebill storks are very docile with humans.
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