Runaway pet: Nanda acclimatized in northern Germany and threaten farmers

If you find yourself in the vicinity of the city of Lubeck, in the north of Germany, you can see a very unusual picture. Flocks of ostriches, consisting of adults and chicks, freely walk around the fields in search of food. But these are not domestic ostriches that are grown on farms, but completely wild rheas that freely live in nature. How did they end up there?

Flightless Nandu birds in the wild live in the steppes of South America, the so-called pampas, and on the territory of the high plateaus in the Andes. Despite their resemblance to ostriches, these birds belong to the order of nanduiformes, although the issue of their systematics remains controversial. The genus of Nandu includes two species: ordinary Nandu and Darwin Nandu. Ordinary nandus live mainly in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay. With a growth of about 1.4 meters, the weight of these birds reaches 30-40 kilograms. Nanda live in packs of 10-30 individuals.

They feed on both plant and animal food. And South American farmers even specially bred these birds so that they ate insect pests on agricultural fields.

This Nandu population is of great interest to scientists and the public. Since 2008, the Nanda has been regularly monitored. Today, the number of birds, according to various sources, is already more than 200 individuals. Tourists in the vicinity of Lubeck often come precisely because of the Rhea, which can be seen on the border of the federal states Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

One can only hope that ostriches over time will not threaten the natural ecosystems of northern Germany. Indeed, history knows many examples when species introduced by humans became the cause of ecological disaster. In the meantime, German farmers were already dissatisfied with the appearance of Nanda, on whose fields they drop in to enjoy rape and other crops.

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