Today I did absolutely nothing of any noteworthiness. I woke up, tested my ankle, it still hurt a lot, went back to sleep. I did not go to the farmer's market, to St. Andrews Church for the craft and bake sale, nor even downstairs here at the house. i didn't even make food - I had some of the buffalo jerky and dried cherries Jeff sent. I did get a couple of bottles of water from the fridge but otherwise stayed off my feet.
So I figured this would be a good chance to share some of what I learned at the zoo.
1) Parrots are the only bird that eat with their feet. They grasp items and raise them to their beak in with their foot, much like a human holds something in our hand and brings it to our mouth to bite.
2) The Wrinkled Hornbill, and several other types of birds I saw, are on the endangered list because they are "cavity nesters". The wrinkled hornbill will go find a hole or crevice in a tree that nature or some other creature has made and abandoned and uses that to nest. They do not make their own nests - if they can't find anything suitable they just don't breed. The male/female bond is a lifetime bond. The female is very selective about choosing a mate - the reason comes clean when you know their breeding style. Once a breeding pair finds a suitable nest, they do whatever it is they do to fertilize the eggs. Then the female enters the nesting cavity and they use a combination of spit and soil to build a wall enclosing her inside the nest. They leave an opening only large enough for the male to place his beak inside. The female lays the eggs and will remain inside to warm the eggs until the babies hatch and are several weeks old. There are usually an average of 3-5 eggs. During this time, the female and babies are completely dependent ont he male to find and bring them food. So you can see why the female is very choosy about her mate - she is literally depending on him not to let her starve to death. People find the nests and tear it apart to steal the eggs or baby chicks to hand raise as pets. Even if they do not capture the female the nest is completely destroyed. This means that not only are the babies lost tot he wild but the nest is destroyed. There are not unlimited suitable nesting options for this bird, so the loss of a cavity nest means the loss of possibly several breeding cycles while they hunt for another suitable nest option. These birds only breed once or twice a year. The zoo has a mating pair that has had over a dozen successful breeding seasons. Once the babies are old enough they go to other zoos, so they can be introduced to others of their kind to find a mate. Once mates select each other they are placed in zoos as a mated pair. The goal is to increase the number of birds and then reintroduce them to the wild, with assistance from park rangers in ensuring their cavity nests they find aren't destroyed.
3) Each day at the zoo there are children's activities offered. The main activity is where the children prepare snacks and treats for the birds and other animals. For the birds, sometimes it is spearing a carrot or fruit on a stick that is then wedged into a crevice in a tree in their habitat. Sometimes it is placing seeds, nuts and other treats like carrot slices into paper bags which are then folded up and speared in a twig by the bird caregivers. They place the treat bags in different locations, not just one single location every time. The birds have to use their beaks to tear into the paper bag and hunt out the treats. This is not only a source of entertainment for the birds, but it also gives the children a way to see their activity getting used for the animals - to form an attachment between the children and the animals. Birds in the wild don't have food just given to them, they have to find it and usually get to it. Some of the birds in the zoo are zoo bred and raised and some are wild captures, though they try to only keep the ones in the zoo here that cannot be rehabilitated and sent back tot he wild. For example, if a bird has a wing or foot injury that would prevent it finding food then releasing it into the wild would basically mean it's death. However, there is no reason it cannot breed healthy babies that can help repopulate the wild. Anyway, I thought it was neat that they use a children's activity to help entertain and also bring out those hunting food instincts. Sometimes the birds find the treats and sometimes they don't. But they continually are on the lookout to try to find the tasty snacks.
4) The Victoria Crowned Pigeon is a really beautiful bird. It is absolutely gorgeous. This is to its detriment since it is being hunted to extinction from the millinery trade. That is, the hat trade. Instead of gathering feathers that have been lost they kill the entire bird to gather every feather. However, this means the bird is dead. Feathers are a renewable resource that unfortunately too many people are ignoring in their rush for the immediate reward. They have this beautiful blue to their feathers, a red iris in the eye, and a lovely feathered crest on their heads.They are the largest breed of pigeon. I included the second short video so you could see their size relative to a human.
5) The Pacific Golden Plover is called the kolea by the Hawaiians. It goes to Alasks to have it's young, and when they are a few months old the parents all get together and fly away to Hawaii and their winter nesting grounds. The babies stay in Alaska, then after a few months they all take off and fly to Hawaii or other areas in the tropical Pacific. They fly in huge migratory flocks. They stay in the Pacific to winter, then all fly back to Alaska. Each bird has a specific location they return to, both in the Pacific and Alaska. It is amazing that they can instinctively navigate to a tiny island in the middle of a HUGE ocean and find the same location. They fly 3-4 days straight with no stopping for food, water or rest to get to their Pacific location, then repeat this to go back to Alaska. So when the adults and babies all return to Alaska they are reunited. It is pretty amazing. I included a video that explains it better.
I am hoping to go learn more about the animals that they have here. This week's tour way on birds, hence all the bird information. I'm not normally much of a bird person, but that was interesting to me so I am sharing it.
Aloha!
~Melissa
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