Last November, a prehistoric-looking shoebill landed on a tour boat in Mabamba Swamp on the shore of Lake Victoria in Uganda. The imagery was captured in a manner that made the shoebill, perhaps 4 feet tall, appear imposingly larger.<\/p>\n
The massive “dinosaur bird” seemed to dwarf tourists during the extraordinary encounter.<\/p>\n
We featured Mabamba Trips\u2019 footage in a post that went viral. So this week I asked “Innocent the Guide” if his Instagram post and the publicity it generated has impacted regional tourism. (See post below.)<\/p>\n
He said yes, adding: \u201cWe have been seeing many people visiting and asking about it. Recently I had group of nine people who came to see the shoebill and now most tour companies in Uganda have now started taking Mabamba Swamp as their first priority.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shoebills, named for the shape of their razor-sharp bills, maintain a striking presence in the dense wetlands of East-Central Africa. The towering birds might remain stationary for hours before ambushing prey with incapacitating blows.<\/p>\n
In the air, shoebills resemble flying dinosaurs, boasting wingspans of up to 8 feet.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, shoebills are classified as \u201cVulnerable\u201d throughout their range, with a decreasing population of perhaps fewer than 5,000 mature individuals. (Habitat loss and agriculture are major threats.)<\/p>\n
This sad reality is partly why birders travel to Africa in the hope of seeing them, before that opportunity becomes further diminished.<\/p>\n
On a positive note, appreciation for shoebills is soaring, at least at Mabamba Swamp, where shoebills are strongly protected.<\/p>\n
From Innocent the Guide: \u201cWe have noticed that for most of the guests who visit Uganda, the shoebill must be on their bucket list, which not there before.\u201d<\/p>\n
The guide added: \u201cMost tourists used to come for gorillas only, and now the shoebill is competing.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Rare \u2018dinosaur bird\u2019 encounter has more tourists hoping to see one<\/p>\n
Reporting by Pete Thomas, For The Win \/ For The Win<\/p>\n
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
More Pets, Animals and Nature<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last November, a prehistoric-looking shoebill landed on a tour boat in Mabamba Swamp on the shore of Lake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[32072,96,32071,153],"class_list":{"0":"post-54972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uganda","8":"tag-nation-world","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-pets-animals-nature","11":"tag-uganda"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}