Beloved Birds Return to Islands for First Time in 40 Years After Damming Damage Reversed

[Michie]

What’s secretive, pretends to be a stick, and is sometimes confused with a mythical creature?

The figure in focus of this question is a beloved bird that’s returning in numbers to Tasmania for the first time in 40 years.

The Australasian bittern disappeared from Tasmania’s northern reaches for decades following a hydropower project in 1964 that disrupted a unique local wetland ecosystem called the Lagoon of Islands.

Raising the water level, flooding the islands, and eliminating the prime habitat of the bird, its return is a watershed moment in the area’s recovery following the elimination of the dams in 2012.

Wielding an “eerie deep hoot” that’s supposed to be similar to a mythical creature called a Bunyip, a man-eating swamp creature, the few Aborigines who will try and describe it say it looks like a seal or swimming dog, while others describe it as having a long neck and small head. Both forms are accused of preying on humans.

Continued below.

Beloved Birds Return to Islands for First Time in 40 Years After Damming Damage Reversed

Wielding an "eerie deep hoot" that's supposed to be similar to a mythical creature called a Bunyip, a man-eater of the swamps and billabongs.

www.goodnewsnetwork.org

 

[AlexB23]

What’s secretive, pretends to be a stick, and is sometimes confused with a mythical creature?

The figure in focus of this question is a beloved bird that’s returning in numbers to Tasmania for the first time in 40 years.

The Australasian bittern disappeared from Tasmania’s northern reaches for decades following a hydropower project in 1964 that disrupted a unique local wetland ecosystem called the Lagoon of Islands.

Raising the water level, flooding the islands, and eliminating the prime habitat of the bird, its return is a watershed moment in the area’s recovery following the elimination of the dams in 2012.

Wielding an “eerie deep hoot” that’s supposed to be similar to a mythical creature called a Bunyip, a man-eating swamp creature, the few Aborigines who will try and describe it say it looks like a seal or swimming dog, while others describe it as having a long neck and small head. Both forms are accused of preying on humans.

Continued below.

Beloved Birds Return to Islands for First Time in 40 Years After Damming Damage Reversed

Wielding an "eerie deep hoot" that's supposed to be similar to a mythical creature called a Bunyip, a man-eater of the swamps and billabongs.

www.goodnewsnetwork.org

Reminds me of the return of the eagle in the US.

 

[Michie]

Reminds me of the return of the eagle in the US.

We have a lot of them in my area. We see them all the time. They like to fish out of the river.

 

[AlexB23]

We have a lot of them in my area. We see them all the time. They like to fish out of the river.

Interesting stuff