Life is tough if you’re a blundering, buck toothed, bumphead.
You’re far, far bigger than all the rest of the parrotfish in the Pacific. And weighing up to 45kg, you’re very popular at local birthdays and weddings. As the main course. So you console yourself with another chunk of crunchy coral reef! Tasty!
Ramming speed
These hapless hermaphrodites highlight a critical question in conservation. What do you do when an endangered species does things that are bad for the environment?
“They feed directly on these corals,” said Dr Douglas McCauley from the University of California in Santa Barbara who has studied and written about bumpheads extensively.
“They are big enough to ram into them, break off a piece and process this living rock...
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