Fact 5: The shoebill’s feet are like a dinosaur’s. It usually comes in at four to five times bigger than the bird’s body itself. It takes just 150 beats per minute to keep this impressive animal aloft. As big as a shoebill’s body is, its wingspan can be even larger. The shoebill is similarly nonconformist in the air, where it has one of the slowest flapping rates of any bird. The fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex is one of the biggest animals in Jurassic Park, but some of its key noises came from Rydstrom’s tiny Jack Russell terrier, Buster. According to Africa Freak, shoebill storks are very territorial, so they live in solitary.Even when they are paired or have mated, they still hunt and eat alone and away from. The shoebill stork has an average wingspan of over 2.5m © Getty images Not so scary now, eh? Known as urohidrosis, it’s a messy but deliberate habit that helps the bird to stay cool. 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.įor one thing, it poos on its own legs. It’s also slow, purposeful and utterly relentless. This freshwater swamp specialistfrom eastern Africastands over a metre tall, has a wingspan of up to 75cm, and its sharp, clog-shaped bill grows up to 24cm long. It also doesn’t help that the bird is physically intimidating. And yes, its stare is somewhat intense – think Paddington Bear meets Vinnie Jones. Yes, it has an enormous, shoe-shaped beak that can kill a baby croc or wrangle a lungfish. Yes, it’s a solitary loner that picks off its prey one at a time.

Dinosaur shoebill stork