a dead-end host infection. The digenean trematode Patagifer bilobus, a fluke, has been reported from sacred ibis in Sudan before 1949. It lives in the small intestine of this species, among numerous other ibises, spoonbills, and a few other waterfowl. It has a complicated life history involving three hosts: the eggs hatch in fresh water where they infect a ram's horn snail in which they multiply and produce cercariae, which exit and encyst in a larger snail such as a Lymnaea, waiting to be eaten by a bird. Reproduction The species usually breeds once per year in the wet season. Breeding season is from March to August in Africa, from April to May in Iraq. It builds a stick nest, often in a baobab tree. The bird nests in tree colonies, often with other large wading birds such as storks, herons, African spoonbills, African darters, cormorants. It may also form single-species groups on offshore islands or abandoned buildings. Island nests are often made on the ground. Large colonies consist of numerous subcolonies and can number 1000 birds. Females lay one to five eggs per season, incubated by both parents for 21 to 29 days. After hatching, one parent continuously stays at the nest for the first seven days. Chicks fledge after 35 to 40 days and are independent after 44 to 48 days, reaching sexual maturity one to five years after hatching. Conservation The African sacred ibis is classified as "Least Concern" by the IUCN. The global population is estimated at 200,000–450,000 individuals but appears to be decreasing. It is covered by the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA). In myth and legend For many centuries, sacred ibis, along with two other species in lesser numbers, were commonly mummified by the Ancient Egyptians as a votive offering to the god Thoth. Thoth, whose head is that of an ibis, is the Ancient Egyptian god of wisdom and reason, and thus of truth, knowledge, learning and study, and writing and mathematics. The sacred ibis was considered the living incarnation of Thoth on earth. Pilgrims from all over Egypt brought thousands of ibis offerings to four or more main temples, which at their peak mummified and buried thousands of birds a year in gigantic and ancient catacombs (one complex was in operation for 700 years). Eventually, an estimated eight million birds were mummified and entombed by the Ancient Egyptians.