It’s easy to accidentally kill a captive bird. Janeen Moore, a supervising animal keeper at the Cape May County Zoo, said that stress, poor diet, a rough touch from a human hand, improper enclosure size, depression, and even oven fumes from an evening’s dinner can kill birds that live in a domestic context. The avians at the zoo are in great hands, but her words are a warning to anybody considering having a pet bird: It isn’t easy.
Moore is a bird expert; she went to Stockton University for natural mathematics and biology and has cared for hundreds of birds in her life. She cares for birds at the zoo and at her home in Dennis Township, where she built an extension on her property to care for birds that other owners surrendered when they could not keep up their care.
Nearly every bird at the zoo was found injured in the wild, rescued from a negligent home or surrendered by owners who could no longer keep them.
Foels, the zoo’s 7-year-old bald eagle, is one such bird. He was found in the wilds of Virginia as a chick with an injured wing. Foels flies crooked and would have a tough time surviving in nature. At the zoo, he can live a full life of up to 30 years.
Brutus, a 32-year-old African gray parrot, was surrendered to the zoo in 1997 by her Sea Isle owner.
“She was a biter,” Moore said, holding to her side deer antlers on which Brutus perched.
“She loves to make fart noises,” she said as Brutus let out musical pops and whistles. Brutus was kidnapped from the zoo in 2014, an incident joked about in that week’s “Saturday Night Live” episode, Moore said.
“The person who ended up giving Brutus to the Middle Township police was probably the person who took her,” said Ed Runyon, director of the Cape May County parks, which include the zoo grounds. Runyon said the person who kidnapped Brutus probably had a change of mind after being bitten.
“And she bit one of the police officers,” he said.
Dino, a 32-year-old scarlet macaw, was born in Florida at the Avian Breeding and Research Center, which is no longer in operation. He was once a beloved pet, but his owners were unable to continue caring for him. He was hand-reared, which means he is comfortable being held and handled by humans.
He never learned to fly and is extremely affectionate with Moore, who says he loves to hum and dance along to the radio. His owners still visit whenever they’re in the area.
Feeding these intelligent birds, and other large birds at the zoo, is challenging. Most are natural scavengers, so in the wild they have the opportunity to eat a huge variety of plants, fruits, and sometimes meats. It is hard to know what they might eat on a given day in the wild, so matching it in captivity can be tricky.
A lot has changed on that front since the zoo first began housing birds in the 1980s. Peanuts and seed mixes have been replaced with a rainbow of grains, fruits, vegetables, and starches that Moore hand-prepares for the birds. And for the zoo’s crested caracara, a small bowl of dead baby mice.
The zoo once operated a walk-through aviary that was home to hundreds of birds that lived side by side, as if in nature. It stood tall near the front of the zoo for 25 years but was demolished because its central heat system required a multimillion-dollar replacement. That, coupled with dwindling attendance, was enough to spell its fate.
Most of the bird species that lived in the aviary were shipped to zoos across the country. Moore personally delivered many of them to their new homes in places like North Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Florida. The zoo’s oyster catcher and scarlet ibis were given to the Smithsonian National Zoo, for example.
The demolition of the aviary left a large space on the property for another exhibit, which Runyon hopes can include penguins, in the future.
Moore said “birds are really tough to get in zoos anymore.” She explained that healthy birds are no longer taken from the wild to be shown on display, and on top of that birds are difficult to breed in captivity.
When the birds from the aviary were listed on a database where animals are exchanged between zoos, they were all claimed within days, she said.
The zoo’s lone toco toucan, whose beak is light and helps regulate her body heat, was especially difficult to acquire. She is chatty and curious, and she sometimes follows Moore around and yaps it up. “She’s really smart and curious,” she said.
Birds that find themselves in managed care at places like the Cape May County Zoo live long lives, most of the time longer than the lives they would have in the wild. They receive intense attention from veterinarians and keepers who truly love them. At 26, the zoo’s kookaburra, native to Australia, is incredibly old for its species.
Outside of their natural habitats, there’s no better place for a bird than a zoo.
Visit the Cape May County Zoo every day of the year except Christmas.
Contact the author, Collin Hall, at 609-609-8600 ext. 156 or by email at chall@cmcherald.com
