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Carnivorous parrots

Keas are New Zealand's parrots but they are not content with fruit and nuts. They eat meat which is why they hang around the burrows of the island's huge shearwater colonies. While the adult shearwaters are all out at sea the chicks are hidden away in their burrows - and the keas know it. Groups of keas tour the shearwater burrows listening out for the chicks moving around in their underground chambers. As the burrow entrance is narrow a kea must dig away at the earth until it can haul the chick out and kill it with its beak. Keas became meat-eaters relatively recently and have no special adaptations for it.

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2 minutes

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