The Elusive Limpkin Foraging for Apple Snails
by Carla Parris
Title
The Elusive Limpkin Foraging for Apple Snails
Artist
Carla Parris
Medium
Photograph - Digital Photograph
Description
THE ELUSIVE LIMPKIN FORAGING FOR APPLE SNAILS is a digital photograph by Carla Parris.
Limpkins are unusual, odd-looking, marsh birds. They are something of a cross between a crane, an ibis, and a rail. These high stepping wading birds get their name from their slow, unsteady, seemingly limping gait.
Limpkins live in Florida, as well as in the American tropics. They feed primarily on apple snails which generally live in shallow water and on floating vegetation. When a limpkin finds an apple snail, it carries it to land or shallow water, places it in mud with the opening facing up, and quickly and deftly uses the sharp, twisted end of its curved bill like a paring knife to cut the attaching muscle of the snail and extract the mollusk.
Limpkins are largely nocturnal, and are often heard, rather than seen. They have an extremely raucous call, and their piercing banshee wails are often heard at dawn or night. These loud, wild, wailing cries are often used for wild animal sound effects, such as the cry of the hippogriff in the popular movie, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
In protected areas such as Wakulla Springs State Park outside Tallahassee, Florida, where this limpkin was photographed, where limpkins do not fear people, they may be active during the day, although even then, they are usually found near cover.
Limpkins are threatened by wetland drainage and anything that detrimentally affects the apple snail population or the foraging conditions (like thick mats of water hyacinths or other nonnative plants, or dense cattails along shorelines, which hinder access to the snails and other mollusks). Because of these concerns, although the limpkin population in Florida is fairly stable, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission currently lists the limpkin as a Species of Special Concern.
Uploaded
March 26th, 2015
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