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Do the Zoo: Where ‘Birdbrained’ Is a High Compliment

The Cape May County Zoo’s toco toucan is chatty and curious, and likes to follow her keeper around.

Photos and story by Collin Hall

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.

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