We sometimes forget just how adaptive the natural world can be, Rosemary has a story of a recent phenomenon.
So many wild animals have adapted to human culture. Like house sparrows living in New York City subways or Cooper hawks hunting pigeons inside Home Depots. Here’s one of those built it and they will come tales.
Everyone knows of someone who has had a water garden installed in their backyard. These trendy additions to one’s “outdoor living area” range from a simple plastic pond and pump to elaborately tiered waterfalls and landscaping get. And apparently, the newest thing is to add fancy fish. And the fanciest is the koi — a type of ornamental carp native to Asia. Koi ponds have now spread world-wide. Even to backyards in places like Manchester, NH.
And apparently, these urban gardeners aren’t the only ones who love koi ponds. It turns out that great blue herons have become the scourge of ornamental carp-growers everywhere. These normally skittish birds have discovered that koi are worth getting close to humans for — something that Granite State Great Blue herons, anyway, rarely ever did before.
One Manchester couple had a heron perched on their roof every day waiting for a chance to clean out their koi pond. These people expressed dismay and a bit of outrage, of course. But herons are one of the smartest birds going — right up there, apparently, with crows and parrots. They know a good thing when they see it.
So if you are going to put big brightly colored fish outside, in the open, don’t be surprised if something wild doesn’t try to take a stab at one — or a dozen.
