Tuesday, October 11

As part of our ongoing development of our facilities, the Bird and Program Animals Team was recently allotted a sum of money to make improvements that we felt would be beneficial. This money has allowed us to purchase building materials and pay for the labor to enhance particular bird spaces. The most viewable of these recent construction projects is our hooded vulture habitat, in which we have raised the height of the ceiling mesh. This has given the birds a significant amount of additional flight space and the opportunity to perch up higher.

In addition, we were able to refurbish our king vultures’ indoor area where they spend cold nights. One of the improvements includes the addition of a sliding shift door which enables us to shift the king vultures into their heated quarters. This is especially useful when dealing with the special characters of Venus and Lilith. King vultures are very opinionated about who they prefer, and unfortunately Ms. Venus has decided one of life’s pleasures is to harass the primary keeper of the area at every opportunity. Ms. Lilith has chosen one of the swing keepers to torment, so our ability to shift these birds away from the habitat is very useful.

Two other projects are in the works to change up some spaces for our birds who participate in World of Wild Theater presentations. One change involves increasing the amount of sun that enters some of their living spaces. The other change will allow us much more flexibility to allow certain birds to spend time out in habitats. Overall, we have had some exciting things happening around the department that we are very proud of, and we hope that you will enjoy them just as well as the birds do!
Andy Clement
Keeper III, Birds