This tick-eating bird (Buphagus africanus) is now being reintroduced to South Africa where it became extinct in 1910. It was eliminated because its preferred host species - buffalo, rhinoceros and giraffe - were hunted out and the cattle to which it transferred its services were treated with chemicals that eradicated ticks. However, game farming is on the increase and it is costly and difficult to dip semi-wild animals, so farmers want it back. It is an extraordinarily efficient parasite destroyer. A female tick lays 18,000 eggs but a single oxpecker eats 150,000 ticks a year so just a few birds have a huge effect on tick numbers. Unlike dipping, oxpeckers leave a few ticks on each animal, which ensures immunity to parasite-borne diseases.
