July 8, 2019
Yes! Jung Il-woo was live in two recent programs of KBS’s Wild Map. I wanted to know what they said about the one with the birds, so I asked my tutor to translate part of it for me. First I include the video then the translated bit. It is absolutely fascinating… now I wish I knew everything they say!
Translated by Fan 13 and her Korean tutor. Please give credit if reposting. Thank you!
The program =
야생탐사 프로젝트 ‘와일드 맵’ Wildlife explore project ‘Wild Map’
The episode title = 안녕! 시화호 뿔논병아리 Hello! Sihwa lake’s ‘great crested grebe’
W: Jung Il woo
A: the first person
B: the second person ( I think he is doctor Choi, according to the first person’s speech)
7:19 W: I met great crested grebe this morning. This great crested grebe, soon we will talk together, has fancy feathers on the back.
7:35 so what I am curious about is, is there any method to distinct between male and female ones?
7:41 A: (the doctor(the other person) should do it) laughs
W: please go ahead,
7:45 A: ok I will say now. First, they don’t have visible differences between genders. Males are fancy and females are simple, which is most of the birds are like is called “male female different shape”, this bird(great crested grebe) looks similar to each other, so they are “male female same shape”, but if you keep looking at them closely for long time like the Dr. Choi, you can see the male bird has longer back tail and neck feathers and darker colors.
(8:17 Woo said “so that’s why we can see those in the picture..) so we can distinguish them like that way.
8:24 W: I think many people have never heard of this Bird called “great crested grebe”, but if they don’t have “horn” can we call it as just “little grebe”?
[뿔논병아리’s 뿔 means horn, so just 논병아리 is without horn]
8:37 W: it is because there is “horn” that’s why we call it “horn little grebe/great crested grebe)”?
8:38 A: In Korea, there is a bird called “논병아리/little grebe” which is a bit small, but this one is bigger than that and has back tail looking like a horn, and that’s why we call it as that.
8:51 W: we are in Sihwa lake, in general what do they eat?
9:00 A: in general they eat fish.
9:06 W: then little fishes?
9:09 A: yeah, a little baby fishes in the river or lake. and big fish but still considered as small. some fish which can be 20cm, the adult bird can swallow it but this time of the year, they raise chicks(baby birds) so they will bring a smaller fish to them
9:33 W: Yuni said “wow there is a bird with horn”? but in fact, they don’t have it, it is feather looking like that.
9:45 and now we are filming them live what he is doing. Can someone explain what is he doing?
9:55 B: yeah, now he built a new nest so it is not stable. so while he is making the eggs warm, he is still making it more stable with other materials.
10:07 W: oh then, there are eggs in there?
B: yeah, there are. I found 3 eggs there in the morning.
W: with me.
B: yes, we found there were three. usually the nest are very beautiful round shape, but this is is not well formed because he felt not so safe in this region.
10:27 W: the viewers might not know, but they have many natural enemy. especially there are some birds like wild goose who pecks and eat eggs (B: Not the wild goose, it is herring gull.
W: yeah, true. herring gulls. so those birds ate all the eggs near this area that the bird we see now is very anxious and nervous. so he is sitting there to keep its eggs safe. I said it to notify the viewers.
11:12 W: and you will know when you see the broadcast, they make the nest very elaborate, and they do it amazing and scientific way. But the one you see now is not that, because they made it in anxiety from the enemy
11:28 B: yes, so the normal nest are very heavy so we can’t hold it but this one is separated so he is trying to make it stable by adding more materials
11:48 W: yeah.
B: if you don’t do it, they can lose warmth.
11:53 W: there is another good question. is the nest on the water? what if it is swept away? I and the doctor went there and saw, I heard that the nest is made of water plants (B: aquatic plants), yeah, aquatic plants.
12:15 W: then can you explain how they are floating?
B: the aquatic plants are growing on top of water, so I think they are more advanced then the science. We can see how they are dedicated to save their species. It is really sad to see the eggs are destroyed by other enemies.
15:05 W: I saw the video, and I can see they have strong love to the chicks so they are raising the chicks on top of their back.
15:27: My parents used to say “I raised you on my back” as a joke, but they actually raise them on their back, they are so full of love.
15:38 W: please explain that for us.
A: Yes, the reason why they put them on the back is, as Ilwoo just said, it is the their instinct. and you want to question if other birds do not do that? some birds do that as well, and they have something like heart shape on their forehead. (16:14 W:like a tiger mask) and it is to protect from enemies (16:18 W: to protect themselves), and to be seen as dangerous, and it is only shown when they are young.
16:24 W: Oh, they feed their chicks like that.
16:28 B: and the dad bird is raising them on their back a lot.
16:34 W: oh really? the father’s love.
16:40 B: but when they grow up, they don’t care if they are dad or mom. They just go to someone bigger. and when the bird open their arms, there are space. They hide the chicks there and they go underwater.
16:54 W: With the chicks?
16:55 B: yes, when you put them on back, they get out. People also have space under our arm, these birds use this space as well when the enemies come.
17:05 B: The chicks can’t breathe so they get out of water in time, etc. in that way they take care of offspring, and feed them and raise them.
17:18 B: this scene is very important. the mom got the feathers from herself, the reason why is when the mom gets fish for them, the fish has bones inside. and when they vomit something they can make scars in their body. When you see they vomit, you can see the feather makes a ball shape. and they will not have scars when they vomit. No one knew about this but after long time of research we can see this. They do this way a lot when the chicks are still very young. Also the parents also eat this sometimes.
Here are some of my screen captures:
