By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Mrs Goodluck Ralph, from Akwa Ibom State has given a bizarre reason for killing two colourful birds which flew into her residence.
She said the two birds were fighting on her late father’s grave, and that they considered the incident “not ordinary”.
The birds, identified as Red-vented Malimbe, are found in Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Togo. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical swamps.
The Red-vented Malimbe’s conservation status is said to be least concern – meaning that their population status is not threatened or near threatened.
But mrs Ralph shared on Wednesday, photos of the remains of the two birds on her Facebook stories, and narrated what happened.
“Those birds were seen fighting seriously on the grave till one had to kill one. After killing one, the second one became very weak and wanted to fly but my brother had to kill the second one,” she said.
Ms Ralph, who is a teacher in a private school, said the birds “have failed” and that she and her family were “more than conqueror” – a popular phrase among Nigerian Pentecostals, suggesting a victory has been won against some evil forces.
She said the incident happened on the New Year Day, after her father’s burial on December 31.
“After killing them (the birds), we burnt them,” she added.
However, Edem Eniang, a professor of Wildlife, University of Uyo, told the premium Times that the species are now scarce in Akwa Ibom.
He said the birds use the leaves of raffia palms to make their nest on tall palm wine trees.
“Their net has a shoe shape. These nest, when we were children, they were common and we used to wear it and marched like soldiers, those of us who were born during the (Nigerian civil) war.
“We were not wearing it to serve as shoes but wearing it to have the fun of wearing shoes which we couldn’t afford,” he said.
He said the killing of the birds is evidence that, “We live in a society where people attached a lot of superstition to every common environmental situation”.
“They also do this to different types of animals. Whatever they don’t understand, whatever they don’t appreciate in terms of biological science, they attach a lot of interpretation.
“This is built from a culture that depends so much on myth, unverified myth, which has made our lives even more complex.”
Prof Eniang urged the federal government to introduce conservation education in the school curriculum at all levels.
He added that the Red-vented Malimbe are in their breeding season, and that the two that were killed may have fought for territory.