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More new arrivals to the birds department |
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What a wet ol’ week this one was, but you won’t hear us complaining, not by a long shot! Actually it was another week to write home about, and to be honest we’ve been pretty lucky, with a month of new arrivals. This week’s new edition, ‘better make that editions,’ are two more Brolgas.
This pair of Brolgas have ‘flown’ up from Taronga Zoo in Sydney, to join our bird collection in the wetland exhibit. We have given these birds, the names ‘Fred’ and ‘Ginger’. We named them after Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, because they too loved to dance just as much as our Brolgas.
The word Brolga is thought to originate from Aboriginal Dreamtime, and a beautiful, young Aboriginal dancer named ‘Buralga’ who rejected the advances of a evil magician, who in turn changed her into a graceful crane, to spend the rest of time dancing across the plains with the swirling willy-willies and the dust devils.
We would also like to keep you up to speed with our baby Red-collared Lorikeet, ‘Junior’. Junior is coming along in leaps and bounds (maybe that should be flaps and flutters) and the other day he spent his first day in the rainforest aviary, showing off and finding out what his wings are all about. Give him a week and he’ll be doing laps around the aviary just like the rest of them.
Birdy Pete, Carmen and Nicole deserve a pat on the back for young Junior’s progress, and for the work they have put in with all the other parrots in the aviary. With a lot of patience and persevering, they have trained our parrots to come to them for treats. Our aim is to give our guests a more up close and feathery experience, and also to provide an opportunity for a photo with our beautiful birdies within our wonderful aviary.
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Bird Peter with our parrots. |
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Swift Parrots make Australia Zoo there home |
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“Hot diggety duck”… At last the sky has opened up and the long awaited rain has finally fallen. Besides settling the dust and the plants quenching their thirst, it also means the birds have gone ‘troppo’ and every bird is staking out their territories, making a claim on any available real estate.
In preparation for the rain, and the excitable behaviour that goes along with it, the bird team has been going like ‘scalded cats’, setting up more and more nest logs and also providing materials for the birdies that would rather make their own nests. Hopefully now we can sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labour and enjoy the ensuing courtship displays, nest building and the squabbles over nestlogs and finally the arrival of this seasons youngsters.
Once again we’ve had the privilege of more new arrivals, and this week Healsville Sanctuary in Victoria sent us three male Swift Parrots for our Rainforest Aviary. The three boys are little rippers who are absolutely exquisite and have added more splashes of colour to our aviary. Their delightful nature and beautiful calls have made them a huge favourite already.
So next time you drop into the Zoo, be sure to have a quick ‘captain cook’ in the rainforest aviary at these special little fellas. Don’t dilly dally because they are fast little birdies and if you’re too slow, you’ll only catch a glimpse of the swiftest parrot of them all.
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Brett releasing one of the Swift
Parrots into the Rainforest Aviary. |
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New arrival to the Cassowary crew! |
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‘Flapping Hoary Headed Grebes!!!!’, as the big fella would say. It sums up nicely a big week, with another HUGE edition to the ‘Zoo Birds’ collection; the arrival of ‘Babinda’, a female Southern Cassowary.
This stunning specimen has just ‘landed’ after departing Dreamworld on the Gold Coast, to call Australia Zoo home, and has just moved into a brand spankin new enclosure especially made for her. She is a gorgeous girl with perfect wattles, a full figure and the best casque we have seen. In other words, a real looker. This beauty has been handpicked for our resident male cassowary ‘Beepa’, the lucky buggar!
‘Babinda’ was captive bred hatching on the 30 th of October 2000. That means her birthday is just around the corner, and that sounds like a great excuse to kick our heels up, and join ‘Beepa’ and his smile.
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Babinda the Southern Cassowary |
From the photos you can also see that our young emus are absolutely out of control. We are caring for them until they are old enough to release back to the bush but these fellas have now outgrown their ‘baby’ enclosure and we have moved them to a larger area to stretch their legs and run all day if they like. This will get them all pumped up for life in the bush.
To wrap the week up, we just had to have a quick yarn about our star recruit ‘J.J’ the Black-Necked Stork. He has settled in nicely into his new home in the wetland exhibit, and we reckon ‘Juliette’ (the long, red-legged lady Black-Necked Stork) has had a lot to do with how well he has adjusted. The pair have been inseparable since their introduction and they seem to be quite fond of each other already…you never know what the future may hold!
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The Bird department - busy as always |
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For the next couple of weeks the ‘Zoo Bird’ team have a new mission we are focusing on, and it entails pruning around forty odd mature macadamia trees in the Rainforest Aviary. When the Rainforest Aviary was erected, we did so around these trees, and we utilized them for their aesthetic value as well as providing shelter, roost sites, somewhere for the birds to perch or nest as well as a good spot to hang hollows for the parrots. On top of this they also provide a food source for the honeyeaters when they flower.
About every 8 months we have to give these trees a serious ‘haircut’. Firstly and most importantly we do this to protect the nylon netting that surrounds the aviary. Another aspect to pruning is allowing the undergrowth, we have planted, to have more space and sunlight and thus, establish.
Another important aspect associated with this involves the ability to manage the aviary and the birds more efficiently. Pruning enables us to observe the birds and identify individuals with ease. This makes it much simpler to obtain a headcount, see who’s checking out which nest log and even get a glimpse of them building their nests!
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The Bird department busy
pruning the trees |
This week we would like you to have a gander at Marilyn, another of our brolgas. Marilyn is a gorgeous sheila with a slender build and long legs that seem to go on forever!
Most of the time she is an absolute sweetie with a pleasant nature, but come tucker time she transforms; something like Jeckle and Hyde! Yep, Marilyn is another imprinted bird, so when she is hungry she is not backwards in letting you know and if you check her beak out, you can see that she is certainly capable of giving you a hurry up! We do still have a soft spot for her though – we just have to keep our wits about us.
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Brett with Marilyn the Brogla |
We would also like to give you a heads up on Rocky and Stomps love life. As you can see they are getting on like a house on fire. Rocky spends his day following Stomp around like a bad smell and, if we didn’t know better we’d swear they were joined at the hip!
When Rocky does get close enough, he does his best to encourage her to sit, so he can attempt to mate with her. He does this by preening her and picking at her back. His cool moves, and the whispering in her ear while he’s ‘tuning’ her, must be hitting the right spot, because quite often she ‘accommodates’ him – if you know what we mean. Rocky’s best move, is the one where he dances around in front of her, often with a skip and a jump thrown in!
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Rocky and Stomp the Cassowary's |
So yes, love is in the air and they are certainly a compatible pair. Now all we can wish for are some ‘cackle berries’ (eggs), and you can be assured we have all our fingers crossed.
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Check out the Lorikeet chicks! |
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G’day and a fair dinkum welcome back to our birdy weekly update, and what a bonzer of a week it was.
We started the week by setting out to hand raise Red-Collared Lorikeet chicks. The larger of the chicks has been handed over to the Bird Show section to eventually join the free flight show. While the other chick we have decided to hang onto for our rainforest aviary to help our keepers meet and greet our guests all the while having a really close up bird experience. The other bonus is that our newer team members will also get the opportunity to play ‘mum’ and gain some first hand experience in raising a baby bird.
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Carmen with one of the
Red-Collared Lorikeet chicks |
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Red-Collared Lorikeet chicks |
The HUGE news of the week is the arrival of a new Black Necked Stork, and this bloke is not just any Black Necked Stork. This Stork is the first Black Necked Stork to be bred in captivity.
‘J.J’ is the famous bird’s name and what a handsome fella he is. He has just arrived from the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary in Port Douglas. ‘J.J’ got his name from ‘Jab’ his mother and ‘James’ his proud father. ‘James’ is actually on loan to the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary from us here at Australia Zoo. ‘James’ has been up there for a good eight years and by the look of it, he has been having a great time.
J. J. is one of a kind. He has answered many questions about Black Necked, including several we didn’t even ask. Can you believe ‘J. J.’ has not only been taught by his parents to fend for himself, but also to build a nest. Yes! He actually helped his parents build their latest nest. As well as help feed this year’s nestlings.
Yep, you heard right…..Last year heralded a world first and has been followed up this year with continued success; this pair is currently raising another two chicks. There were three chicks in the nest, however, with such a large number in the clutch, one of the chicks was falling behind and in the best interest of that chick, a decision was made to hand raise it. To cut a long story short, Australia Zoo now also has taken on this twelve week old Black Necked Stork. He/she (we’re not sure yet) is being cared for by the Bird Show Team members. Hopefully one day soon, our guests will be gob-smacked and in awe of a free flying Black Necked Stork in our free flight bird show.
The ongoing data and knowledge we gain about these beautiful birds may prove to be invaluable as this species is classified as rare and their numbers in the wild continue to decline.
So it’s a big ‘thumbs up’ to the combined long term effort between Australia Zoo and the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary, that has payed off and offers a huge light at the end of the tunnel for this magnificent species.
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Well this week has certainly been a corker. The Zoo bird team have been hard at it up in the rainforest aviary and it has been a hive of activity.
On the inside, all the nest logs have been cleaned out and new substrate applied with a smile, while rubbing our hands together. Yep, we are definitely guilty of getting excited about the upcoming breeding season. On that note, the Blue-Faced Parrot Finch fledglings both have their flying licences and you can often catch glimpses of them doing loops around the aviary. As you can see, the Red-Collared Lorikeet chicks are way-cool little fellas, while the Emu chicks are growing out of sight.
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Red-Collared Lorikeet chicks |
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Nicole with one of the
Red-Collared Lorikeet chicks |
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Ryan with one of the Emu chicks |
On top of this, the Turquoise Parrots have paired up and are currently checking out the real estate options. We also have peaceful doves nesting and just about every other boy bird strutting his stuff and doing his best to chat up the girly birdies.
On the outside of the aviary, the real hard yakka has been happening. The team have been busy improving, if not perfecting, our vermin exclusion wall that surrounds our entire aviary. So now the aviary has a new green corrugated sheet metal edging to it that not only looks good but is serving an important purpose as well.
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The birdie boys hard at work on the new fence! |
This week's profile is yet another bird from the Wetland exhibit, Bruce is one of our four Brolgas. If I did not mention this bloke first, I would be worried he would have found out and then I'd have to spend my time looking over my shoulder, and would have a terrible time sleeping at night. Bruce the Brolga has quite a reputation here at the Zoo and most of the tales are true! This bloke wakes up every day in a bad mood and leaves his cranky head on all day!
Bruce hatched in the wild in early 1992, but didn’t arrive at the Zoo until April 1993. All in all, he has been part of the Australia Zoo family for 11 years, so you can imagine the yarns and tall stories that have become legend within that time. Bruce has his admirers; he is, after all, tough as nails and his no nonsense attitude is respected by all. He fights like Bruce Lee and has made many a grown man and woman turn tail and take flight. For this reason, there are staff members who would prefer to avoid him!
We should point out that Bruce’s belligerent nature is not entirely his fault; he is just a bit confused. In Bruce’s defence, he is what we call an ‘imprinted’ bird. In short, he has been hand-raised and nurtured through injuries to his leg and wing, sustained from falling from the nest. He is a lucky fella, just unsure whether he is one of us or one of the birds, and to add to his confusion, he arrived with a girl’s name, Rosie. So in the end, who can really blame him for having a chip on his shoulder? Bruce Rules!
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What a doozie of a week! The best part is the exciting news that we have another two young whipper-snappers in the Rainforest Aviary to gloat about. Yep, we were pleasantly surprised to see two young Blue-Faced Parrot Finches making a hell of a racquet, chasing mum and dad around the aviary, begging for a feed. After a little jig and a skip or two, we settled down, called photography and captured the moment on film. As you can see, they are definitely little beauties!
All's good in the downy little world of the Red-Collared Lorikeets. From their photos you can see what a great job their parents are doing and how much they’ve grown since last week. We are looking forward to next week when we show you more photos, because by then they will be covered in pin feathers and be looking just jim dandy.
Another week, another profile and this week we have another Black-Necked Stork to introduce to you. These unique, tall and graceful Aussie birds were once widely distributed throughout Australia’s northern and eastern coasts. They are now disappearing, mainly due to the loss of habitat through human encroachment.
With their keen eyesight and lightning-fast bill, Black-Necked Storks prey on such food items as fish, eels, reptiles, rodents, and frogs living in and around the rivers and wetlands that they often inhabit.
Juliette is the long, red-legged lady Black-Necked Stork we would like to introduce. With her beautiful big yellow eyes (males have black eyes) she is a stunning specimen and a real head-turner, who often gets looked up and down!
Juliette has been with us for about spot on a year now, and she would be about three and a half years old. Juliette was born in the wild, but fell from her nest and badly injured her right leg. She was rescued and hand-raised from a young age and would not have survived in the wild.
So next time you visit the Zoo, don’t forget to have a ‘captain cook’ (a look) at the Wetlands exhibit and behold the beauty of the Black-Necked Stork.
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A big ‘feathery', welcome back to the Zoo birds weekly update. The way the weeks fly by, there's no time to beat around the bush, especially when we have birds doing the wild thing and it's not even spring!
We are delighted to tell you the Red Collar lorikeets eggs have hatched and we have two healthy chicks. They're not exactly gorgeous but we reckon they're the ‘ants pants'!
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The georgeous lorikeet chicks |
As you can see from the photos, the emu chicks have more than doubled in size! We have a good chuckle at these fellas daily. They really are starting to find there feet. Just keeping up with them and playing dad is a fulltime job, especially now they've found their accelerator button! We reckon, it would be bonzer if they actually kept their ‘racing stripes' when they are all grown up but shortly that youngster plumage will give way to their adult colouration.
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Carmen Cuddling one of
the baby Emus. |
We haven't got too much time for a chin wag but we gotta tell you, we've stuck the gates on the new cassowary enclosure and we've walked away, with our heads held high. If you ask us, we'd tell you we did a rip snorter of a job! So if you find yourself in our neck of the woods, don't forget to give it the ‘once over!
This week, we start profiling the wetland birds. First on the list is ‘Jack' the Jabiru.
The Jabiru, or as we like to call them, Black-Necked Stork is the only representative of the stork family here in Australia . Worldwide there are 16 other members; all are large, long-legged birds with long, heavy-duty beaks, broad wings and short tails.
Jack has been part of the ‘woodwork' here at Australia Zoo, since late 1992. Jack is a mature stately gentleman who is graceful, and has an air about him that we all recognise.
Jack was born in the wild but was rescued some 14 years ago. He was found as a youngster with only one wing. The wing had been amputated in the wild -presumably he had collided with powerlines. Jack would not have survived in the wild and we consider it a privilege to be caretakers of such a regal fella.
Jack, with his long red legs, black and white plumage, beautiful blue head and big black eyes, is a popular sight with the guests and a favourite amongst the staff.
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The Cassowary's get a new home |
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Well tickle me with a feather; it sure is particularly dry weather! So to keep one step ahead and prevent the wrath of Fred, the Head Groundsman, finding us to throttle us, the Bird team has set up irrigation in all our enclosures to make life a little easier.
We are also currently patting ourselves on the back and giving each other ‘high fives'. Yep, we did it; we have completed our new cassowary enclosure. This week we finished the fencing, erected the shade cloth along the back fence, set up irrigation and have planted another 50 odd plants and ‘ Wholla ' we now have a brand new cassowary enclosure. (Minus a gate, but we are assured it's not far off!)
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Tony and Brett wrestling
the irrigation |
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Tony, Nick and Brett adding the
finishing touches. |
Now, we are not sure if ‘Beepa' our male cassowary, has got word or has figured out what's going on but he does seem to be smiling a lot lately! We think he knows it won't be long now, and there will be a new ‘lady' cassowary on the block. The tough bit of course, is getting her here.
When it comes to catching and transporting a cassowary, I can assure you it is no walk in the park! We are talking about an animal that is capable of ripping a person in two, and that could be a good scenario! Cassowaries have 3 toes, but their inside toe is armed with a claw that can be a couple of inches long! Besides the ‘claw', these birds could literally kick you into the middle of next week!
With this in mind we have no intentions of going one on one with this ‘Super Chook'! Our game plan will be to use our brains instead of being out muscled. We are planning to entice the bird into the actual transport box by feeding and conditioning the bird to enter. When the timing is right and the bird is as comfortable inside the box as outside, the ‘ripcord' can be pulled and ‘Shazam!' one cassowary ready for transport.
Besides a new cassowary arrival we will also be sending one of our cassowaries, ‘Airlie”', to another facility so as they too can present and make the public aware of the plight of these beautiful and endangered birds.
This week's bird profile, virtually chose himself; he really did ‘stick out like a sore thumb'! Introducing ‘Buster' the Brush Turkey . Brush Turkeys belong to the family known a Megapodes, or mound builders. The two other Australian members are the Orange Footed Scrub Fowl, another rain forest inhabitant and another endangered bird, the Mallee fowl and as his name suggests you would find him in arid and woodland areas of Australia.
This family of birds build nests of vegetation shaped into a large mound. The heat generated from the rotting/decaying vegetation actually incubates the eggs.
‘Buster' is not really what you would call a Zoo bird as such. Buster just kinda turned up, liked the look of the place and made himself at home! This bloke has been redecorating over the last couple of weeks by moving all the leaf litter and mulch, from the surrounding gardens near the alligator enclosures, and shaping a mound worth ‘writing home' about!
Now all ‘Buster' has to do, is a bit of ‘sweet talking'. If the girl turkeys are impressed with his ‘footwork' and visit his nest site to mate and lay eggs, he will soon be monitoring the site. He will gauge the temperature by sticking his bald head into the mound, and depending on the situation, he will either add vegetation or take it away. He will also vigorously defend the mound from predators, however this protective nurturing is fairly short lived. Once the chicks have hatched they're on their own.
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Buster, the king of the mound! |
These birds really are little beauties and we enjoy having them around. So if you bump into Fred, hit him up and ask him how his gardens are (if you're game) and what the turkeys are up to!
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Fred, overseeing the construction of the mound |
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The boys have been busy |
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“Stone the crows” mate, the way the weeks are flying by and the turkeys had better start getting nervous; Christmas is just around the corner!
We were hoping to tell you how clever we are, and inform you the fencing in the new cassowary enclosure was finished but just like the saying “don't count your chickens before they hatch” the week has slipped by and we are only halfway. Not a bad effort considering we have finished mulching the enclosure and it is starting to look “pretty good” if we don't say so ourselves.
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Nick and Vaughan hard at it at fencing |
The baby emus we talked about a fortnight ago are growing in front of our eyes! They are eating heaps and we really get a kick out of watching these cool little critters “hoot” around their enclosure.
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The new baby Emu explores with foster mum Nicole |
The last of our emus we would like to profile for you is “Eric”. Eric could best be described as “not the sharpest tool in the shed”, but what he lacks in “smarts” he makes up for in personality.
This fella loves nothing more than getting up close and personal with the keepers. He enjoys hanging out and following us around and checking out what were up to each morning while we clean his enclosure. He also really “digs” getting hosed down, when the weathers hot!
Eric has a dark plumage and is an impressive young male Emu. Just like Eddie, Eric is another “cool” customer and his hairstyle is even “trendier” than Eddies.
Eric has been with us for about 2 years now. Eric's story is rather sad, but is all too common. He was found sitting beside his dead father in the middle of the road. His dad had become another statistic – tragically hit by a car and left to die. This is where Eric's luck changed. A good samaritan stopped, rescued him and bought him to us here at Australia Zoo were we have cared for him and watched him grow into the “strapping“ young fella he is today.
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Eric and Brett have a bit of bloke bonding |
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Eric and Brett see eye to eye |
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A big g'day to everyone out there is website land!
Can you believe it's August already? Here at Australia Zoo its mid winter, and besides no rain in months and spring a long way off, we have birds doing the wild thing all over the place!
The Cassowaries, ‘Rocky and Stomp' have started up again where they left off last year. Let's hope it proves to be fruitful!
In the rainforest aviary we have birds courting and chasing each other everywhere, and we even have birds sitting on eggs already!
Our Red Collared Lorikeets are incubating 2 eggs and if they prove to be fertile, they have already been ‘ear-marked' for the free flight bird show, where they will team up with last years youngster ‘Elmo', to join him showing off in the Crocoseum. These guys will join the rest of our Australian native parrots that make up the ‘Bird shows' free flight show.
The white headed pigeons are also sitting on eggs, as are our grey teals. The Peaceful Doves and Emerald Wing Doves are also busy collecting nesting material.
We finished painting the new cassowary fence posts and rails this week and hopefully, come next week we'll be telling you all about the fencing we completed and how good it looks.
Today, the Emu we would like to profile, is a gorgeous blonde; we call her ‘Elle'. ‘Elle' hatched here at Australia Zoo in late 2002 to her proud mother ‘Emily' and father ‘Eddie' who were made stars in previous profiles. With her long legs and good looks, we called her ‘Elle' after her namesake Elle MacPherson – ‘The Body'. ‘Elle' is a stunner just like her mum, and gets her light plumage from her dad.
If you get the chance to drop in to the Zoo, check out this beauty, don't forget or you'll kick yourself when you get home!
(Birdie Brett) |
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The Bird Team hard at it! |
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This week, the ‘Birdo' team have had our chests ‘puffed up' like a bantam rooster strutting his stuff! We were quite ‘chuffed' after management acknowledged the ‘hard yards' and effort we have ‘put in' over the last couple of months.
You could say we have been going that hard and fast we've had ‘feathers flying in all directions!'
All directions, is certainly one way of putting it! This week we've painted walls in the Rainforest Aviary and in the new cassowary enclosure (our major project at the moment) we've finished cementing and setting posts so the fence lines are finally ready for painting!
As well, we also completed some ‘planter boxes', and erected them at the Rainforest Aviary entrances. As you can see, we certainly have been ‘shaking our tail feathers'!
This week the bird section also became ‘Dads' to a pair of baby emu chicks. In the emu world the father actually incubates the eggs after the female emu has laid them. Once hatched the father is the sole parent and will take care of all the chicks.
These chicks were wandering alone and rescued by Steve out west. The bird team will now be looking after them until they are old enough to be released back into the bush.
Last week, we introduced ‘Eddie' our male emu to you and now we would like you to meet his ‘better half' ‘Emily'.
‘Emily', is an absolute ‘stunner', she has a dark complexion, and she has a great set of legs!
‘Emily', was also rescued by the Australia Zoo team. You may have even seen the rescue on ‘Croc files'. ‘Emily' was the bird rescued from beside a busy highway and as you can imagine, it got quite ‘hairy' at times. We finally managed to get the ‘upper hand', after she did a great job of making us look silly!
So if you drop in for a visit don't forget to go via the emus, and check ‘Emily' out……. just make sure ‘Eddie' isn't looking!
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A big "Howdy doody" and welcome back to our weekly 'Birdy Beak' website update. 'Busy, busy', would be the best way to sum up our week. We started by planting 500 water plants in the wetland exhibit. We are hoping by the time the warmer weather gets here, they should be nicely settled in and should 'go off', like a bucket of prawns in the sun!'
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The Birds Department working hard
on the new wetland exhibit |
'Steady', is the best way to describe the progress we are making on the new Cassowary enclosure. For 'Bird Brains' we are doing a pretty good job on the fencing and concreting involved in such a job! At least our fence line doesn't look like 'a dogs hind leg' anyway.
With this weeks profile we will continue with the 'Ratite' theme. The term 'Ratite', referring to the group of large flightless birds with keelless breastbones. These birds are found throughout the world and include the Ostrich of Africa, the Rhea of South America, the Kiwi of New Zealand, the Cassowary's of Australia and New Guinea, and of course the Emu, another proud Australian.
We would like to introduce to you one of our four emus, which are included in our bird collection here at Australia Zoo. These birds are housed in 2 separate enclosures with a pair of emus in each.
The first pair comprise of 'Eddie' and 'Emily' and the other pair are known as 'Eric' and 'Elle'.
First off the rank, we would like you to get to know 'Eddie'. This bloke is a real character, as are all the emus. He has a light coloured plumage, and a 'cool hair do'! He has a great nature, but come breeding season, you don't want to get on the wrong side of him or go near his nest! This bloke is a great father, and does a wonderful job incubating 'Emily's eggs' and looking after their chicks.
'Eddie' became part of the Zoo after being rescued and caught in the surrounding forestry. He was in very poor condition and very hungry, when we took him in. These days you can say 'gidday' to 'Eddie' and his better half 'Emily', down where the emus hang out, between the walkthrough Koala enclosure and the wetland exhibit.
Until next week, don't forget to stop and smell the flowers and check out the birds!
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Here at Australia Zoo, the ‘Feathered Freaks' of the Zoo are on a mission everyday and we do it with smiles on our dials!
Besides our daily birdy essentials of feeding, cleaning and health checks, you could say we are all over the ‘cook shop!'
Sometimes you'll find us climbing trees to check nest hollows and nest sites in the walkthrough rainforest aviary. Quite often we might look like we've ‘lost the plot', but most of the time we're trying to get a head count in the aviary…..there is around 140 birds after all!
If you didn't spot us there, check out the Wetland exhibit. We are mulching, planting or landscaping every other day! We could also be running around with the emus, getting chased by the cassowaries or ‘chattering' in the Birds of Prey Show! You'll never see us perched, preening ourselves, that's for sure!
On a more serious note, the cassowary breeding season is here and we are almost as excited as ‘Rocky' is! (For those of you that don't know, that's our male cassowary).
This week we also wrap up the Cassowary profiles and we've saved the best looking Cassowary till last. ‘Stomp'. Her name says it all! If this lady got hold of you, you'd be in big trouble. This long legged beauty has been with us for 13 years and is roughly 16 ½ years old. Until last year she'd never been ‘kissed'! That's until she met ‘Rocky' anyway! She certainly seems to have a soft spot for the ‘Rockster' and we hope by the end of the breeding season, we will have a story to tell.
We do hope we have enlightened, if not educated the public a little on the plight of the endangered Double Wattled Cassowary over the last couple of weeks.
If anyone has any questions or queries, please contact the bird section here at Australia Zoo. Remember ‘Endangered' is one small step away from ‘extinction'!
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Another week has flown by, almost as fast as a peregrine falcon chasing a pigeon!
The team kicked more goals this week including sectioning off areas in the wetland exhibit. Our game plan - separating our larger birds, which includes Jabirus and Brolgas, from some of their waterholes. This may sound odd however there is method behind our madness. We are planting out the waterholes with wetland plants and wish to let them become established before the birds are let lose on them. (They like to do a little gardening of their own which tends to involve uprooting anything and everything they come across). We will have our primary feathers crossed, hoping the plants last more than a week.
Of course, we are still chipping away at our new cassowary enclosure. Oh thrill, oh joy we started on the fencing this week! And if we knock it over by the end of month, we'll be dancing like Bruce the Brolga.
This week we would also like to introduce one of our real characters of the bird collection, another of our Southern or Double Wattled Cassowaries.
Drum roll……… “Introducing …..the handsome…the bold, the brave…. and the hot blooded male cassowary…………..Rocky!!!”
‘Rocky' named after the Rockhampton Zoo where he originated, has been with us for two promising years and is a very important member of our Endangered Species Breeding Program for cassowaries.
‘Rocky' is 15 years old and in his prime. We have now paired him up with our largest, most impressive, some what cranky but absolutely beautiful female cassowary we call ‘Stomp'. Their positive behaviour has us very excited and very hopeful this breeding season will be a successful one!
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Stomp and Rocky's story |
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Wow, doesn't the week fly by when you have your head down and tail feathers in the air. Yet another busy week in the birdie section of the zoo.
Our main focus lately has been cassowaries. Completing our new enclosure has been our main aim however thoughts have been on the 2 birds next door.
‘Stomp' and 'Rocky' our resident pair of cassowaries have been together now for a good 18 months. This year's breeding season is upon us and after some promising behaviour last year we are very hopeful it will be a successful one. As this winter progresses we anticipate plenty of canoodling so we'll be sure to keep you informed of their antics and with any luck we'll have some large, green eggs for show as well!!
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Plight of the Cassowary |
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This week we have been busy mulching enclosures, planting and lots of other jobs that go with the territory of being a bird keeper at Australia Zoo. There is also another, more serious aspect to our work. The plight of the Cassowary in the wild is a major concern for us here at the Zoo. In Australia the Cassowary is considered endangered and it is estimated that there are only 900 birds left in wet tropics. The main threats to Cassowaries in the wild are loss of their habitat, run-ins with traffic, people hand-feeding the birds, and feral pigs competing for food and destroying nests and eggs, and also dogs chasing the birds away possible food sources.
Not only are they special for their size and colouring, cassowaries play a very important role in Australia rainforest's as well. They eat 100's of species of fruits, which helps in rainforest regeneration, and aid in promoting plant diversity. Here at Australia Zoo we have a bree ding program in place and we also help raise money to create more habitat for wild Cassowaries. If anyone would like to help us in our fight to save the Cassowary please contact the Zoo.
Today, we would like to introduce two more of our wonderful Cassowaries, Airlie and Bedara. These two birds are brother and sister and were both born in September 1995. They arrived at Australia Zoo when they were just 45 days old, where Airlie and Bedara were hand raised by staff, until the day when they decided they were ready to stay in the Zoo overnight and not get locked in their night quarters like babies do. From that day on, Airlie and Bedara have been on display and they do not have much contact with the keepers anymore. Which is just the way they like it!
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Over the last few weeks we have been doing some major construction in the bird department, getting a new Cassowary exhibit built. We have been digging and building ponds, planting loads of plants and basically trying to get the place looking perfect.
All the fuss is because we are hoping in the near future, that we will be getting a new female Cassowary. After a very important introduction process and some luck, we will be able to house a new female and our male Cassowary ‘Beepa' together with the aim of breeding the pair.
‘Beepa' is the star of this week's animal profile. ‘Beepa' was born in captivity at Fauna Sanctuary in December 1989. When he was 3 years old he moved to Australia Zoo and has been with us ever since. As far as a Cassowary goes, we consider ‘Beepa' to be a quite placid (especially compared to some of our others!!) and hopefully the new female Cassowary will appreciate his easy going nature as much as we do!
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G'day, and welcome to the very first of our weekly instalments on the inner workings of the bird department.
Lets kick off with the very exciting, two new chicks that have recently fledged in the rainforest aviary. Just a few weeks ago we were lucky enough to get our first sightings of a baby red-browed finch and pied imperial pigeon chick. The finches are found right down the east coast of Australia, while the pied imperial pigeons (or more commonly known as Torres Straight pigeons), are found in the Torres Straight region. It will still be many weeks before they completely look after themselves so we will keep you posted on their progress.
Each week we would like to give you a more in-depth look at a bird species and the individual characters we have the pleasure of working with each day. We will start off with our beautiful princess Chloe'. Chloe is a very important bird and doesn't she know it. Chloe has been a movie star herself and stared in The Wiggles Wiggly Safari'. She played Captain Feather sword's cockatoo. Chloe has been at the zoo for about 2 years now and she previously belonged to John Stainton who produces all of the Croc Hunter shows. For anyone who has been to Australia zoo before you may remember Chloe as she hangs out in the wombat enclosure when the weather is fine or on a rainy day she prefers to spend the day with the girls at the information desk.
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