Post by vinjak on Dec 19, 2007 17:24:00 GMT -5
One of the nation's more blatant thieves has been laid low -- by his taste for purloined goodies.
The thief -- a cheeky kea well known to people at Mt Cook village -- was found dead outside the hotel kitchen there.
He ended up on the laboratory slab of pathologist Brett Gartrell, of Massey University, and the diagnosis was "death by chocolate", the New Scientist magazine reported.
The New Zealand parrot was acutely sensitive to chemicals in chocolate that are harmless to humans in all but huge doses.
Cocoa beans are naturally rich in caffeine and its chemical relatives the methylxanthines.
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To humans these are little more than benign stimulants, but to a number of animals they are highly toxic - 240g of unsweetened dark chocolate contains enough methylxanthines to kill a 40kg Alsatian dog.
The kea had eaten just 20g, apparently pilfered from the kitchen rubbish.
"He'd really pigged out," said Dr Gartrell, who wrote a paper for the NZ veterinary science journal with Victoria University researcher Clio Reid.
In addition to being arguably the world's smartest birds, keas are extraordinarily inquisitive foragers, he said.
They used using their beaks to rip open tents and backpacks, open garbage bins and even pry pieces off cars in their quest for food.
"They'll try anything that is vaguely edible, which is part of the reason they get into trouble," said Dr Gartrell.
The magazine reported veterinary journals were peppered with stories of dogs, cats, parrots, foxes, badgers and other animals dropping dead after finding chocolate or being fed it by well-meaning humans.
Humans would probably have to gorge on around 50kg of milk chocolate in a single sitting to get a near lethal dose.
The thief -- a cheeky kea well known to people at Mt Cook village -- was found dead outside the hotel kitchen there.
He ended up on the laboratory slab of pathologist Brett Gartrell, of Massey University, and the diagnosis was "death by chocolate", the New Scientist magazine reported.
The New Zealand parrot was acutely sensitive to chemicals in chocolate that are harmless to humans in all but huge doses.
Cocoa beans are naturally rich in caffeine and its chemical relatives the methylxanthines.
ADVERTISEMENT
To humans these are little more than benign stimulants, but to a number of animals they are highly toxic - 240g of unsweetened dark chocolate contains enough methylxanthines to kill a 40kg Alsatian dog.
The kea had eaten just 20g, apparently pilfered from the kitchen rubbish.
"He'd really pigged out," said Dr Gartrell, who wrote a paper for the NZ veterinary science journal with Victoria University researcher Clio Reid.
In addition to being arguably the world's smartest birds, keas are extraordinarily inquisitive foragers, he said.
They used using their beaks to rip open tents and backpacks, open garbage bins and even pry pieces off cars in their quest for food.
"They'll try anything that is vaguely edible, which is part of the reason they get into trouble," said Dr Gartrell.
The magazine reported veterinary journals were peppered with stories of dogs, cats, parrots, foxes, badgers and other animals dropping dead after finding chocolate or being fed it by well-meaning humans.
Humans would probably have to gorge on around 50kg of milk chocolate in a single sitting to get a near lethal dose.