More from the Birds Show!

An Update from the Minnesota Zoo's World of Birds Show (with More Pictures!)

Summer 2017

Geezer the Spectacled Owl

Name: Jillian Jorgenson
Class Year: Junior
Hometown: Stillwater, MN

Internship: World of Birds Show Intern

Location: The Minnesota Zoo (Apple Valley, Minnesota)


I have been waiting to write my second post from my internship for a few weeks now for a couple reasons that I will get into with more detail in a moment. First, I planned to take pictures during one of our daily shows so I'd have some quality bird pictures to share and second, I was going to shadow another department for a day and wanted to include it in this post. It has been over a month since my first post so here's part two from the Minnesota Zoo's World of Birds Show!

Daily Activities and Training Sessions 

Piper the Blue Throated Macaw

The Birds Show maintains a collection of 30-40 birds and not all of them are used for summer shows. Our trainers have been working hard all summer with some of the newer birds with hope that they may join our daily shows towards the end of the summer. Two of these birds are Piper (a critically endangered Blue Throated Macaw) and Charlie (a Military Macaw). Piper is about 3 or 4 years old and came to the bird show a couple years ago; at the time, his wings had been clipped and he had yet to learn to fly (he reminds me of Blu from the movie Rio). Over the summer, he has become a more confident flyer and is learning his stage routine quite well; his routine includes flying from the backdrop to a perch on the edge of the audience and then to a perch on stage while the presenter talks about Blue Throated Macaw conservation and then flies to a spot on the backdrop where he exits the stage. We have gotten to the point where he comes out at the end of shows to do his routine for small crowds to get used to the people. Like Piper, Charlie came to us as an nervous flyer and although he has improved greatly this summer (making longer and longer flights from his perch to a trainer), his on stage training has been going a little strange lately. The trainers gradually got Charlie used to the stage - they started by bringing him out in his travel crate and giving him lots of treats to ensure that he associated the stage with positive reinforcement. Then he was brought on stage on a trainer's hand and then he began to make short flights from his perch to the trainer. About a week or so ago, Charlie had gotten to the point where he was flying from his perch to the fake tree on stage and then climbing down a vine to his exit point. At the moment, we've taken a few steps back with his training after a minor cut was found on his foot - nothing too serious but I believe it impacted his confidence in flying on stage somehow. Hopefully with lots of care he will be back to where he was in no time!

Bowie the Male Harris Hawk

 During our daily shows, I rotate jobs with the other two interns. Our tasks include: releasing and catching the two flocks of pigeons that we fly at the beginning of each show, releasing and catching Bowie (our male Harris Hawk) during his routine, playing music throughout the shows, baiting the perches at the back of the amphitheater for some of the birds (Bowie, Orville, and Ivory), pressing buttons to release various birds from release boxes located in the woods behind our amphitheater, and putting up various baits and props for the presenter to use on stage. So far, my favorite thing to do during the shows is to bait the perches at the back of the amphitheater - I especially enjoy baiting during shows when our Lanner Falcon, Lola, does her routine; watching her dive is absolutely incredible! There are however some days when Lola's routine doesn't exactly go to plan... As she has gotten older, Lola has become a more confident flyer and she goes farther than we want her to on some days - we attach a GPS unit to one of her tail feathers each time we fly her in a show and we've definitely had to use it. On multiple occasions, we've had to find her in our Amur Tiger enclosure as well as the zoo's parking lot; there have also been multiple occasions where she's flown off zoo grounds and has been gone for hours before we have been able to get her back!

Lola the Lanner Falcon. Note the blue GPS unit on her tail

Additional Project

In addition to the poster I will be making to present back at school in the fall, I have been working on an additional project that I will be presenting to the Birds Show staff on the 30th of this month. I chose to make an educational display about the Critically Endangered (thought to be extinct in the wild) Spix's Macaw. This species was the inspiration for the movie Rio and the trainers talk about the film a good deal during our shows when we bring out our male Hyacinth Macaw, Gandalf. I wanted to make a display that would be easy enough for the general public to understand and to connect the real species to a popular children's movie. After presenting my display to the staff, I plan to bring it back to campus for the Otterbein Animal Conservation Club to use for events/programs. At the moment, I hope to add a kind of coloring book/activity page to hand out with the display but I'm not sure that I'll have time to make it.

Flash the Red Legged Seriema

Some More Pictures

Orville the Male Eurasian Eagle Owl

Gandalf the Male Hyacinth Macaw

Rusty the East African Crowned Crane

  

Rousey the Female Bald Eagle

Coconut the Sulfur Crested Cockatoo (the star of the show)

Gladys after receiving a whole quail to eat

Gladys the Female Eurasian Eagle Owl

Shadowing the Northern Trail

One of the Grizzly Bears - not taken the day I shadowed

On July 9th, I had the opportunity to shadow another department for the day and I chose to shadow our Northern Trail which includes three areas of hoofstock and two areas of carnivores. I could go on and on about all the things I did that day but I'll try to narrow this part of my post to my favorite parts. I stayed for the full shift which was longer than my usual shift with the Birds Show (11 hours as opposed to 8.5 hours usually) so I was able to experience almost every aspect of the Northern Trial. In the morning I helped clean the Wild Boar, Camel, Moose, and Caribou/Reindeer holding areas as well as the zoo's retired red panda named Ellyanna - this was definitely one of my favorite moments because I was able to go in to help feed Elly and I got to touch her (it is important that she is used to strange people touching her for medical reasons).  In the afternoon, I watched some training sessions for the Wild Boars, Grizzly Bears, and Dholes - all are trained for medical procedures/check ups/daily husbandry. One of the primary reasons I wanted to shadow the Northern Trail was to have the chance to see our Asian Wild Horses up close; this species was what first got me interested in conservation as a child and it was a really special moment for me to see them up close and personal! The herd seen by the public includes the zoo's mares and their foals (we have three at the moment) and while we have our temporary summer exhibit, they rotate with the Bactrian Camels for pasture time. Off exhibit, we have a herd of male Asian Wild Horses and I was able to go see them, too (another highlight for me). The stallion herd contains four individuals and the "lead" stallion is called Otradnoye. I was able to spend some time spoiling the stallions with fresh grass and treats before heading back to the main section of the Northern Trail where I went with a different keeper to see the Grizzly Bear holding and roof-top training area (where I got to give the bears some fruit). The next area I got to see was definitely a  huge highlight for me - I got to see the Tiger holding area where the Minnesota Zoo's new Amur Tiger cub is housed with her mother. There are some super cute videos of the cub on the MN Zoo's Facebook page and you should totally check them out! At first, I wasn't sure that I would be able to see the tigers and I'm so glad things went differently! I had the pleasure of sitting for a solid fifteen-twenty minutes watching mother and cub and (with the permission and supervision of another keeper) playing with the cub through the side of her enclosure (mostly tug-of-war with a stick). I've always loved working with hoofstock and I had wanted to experience working with big cats so my day shadowing the Northern Trail was absolutely fantastic! If I decide to apply for another internship at the Minnesota Zoo next summer, I would strongly consider applying for the Northern Trail.

Myself and Alex

Back to the Birds: Hands-On Experience

Within the past couple weeks, I have been able to start working with one of our African Grey parrots in a more hands-on setting. His name is Alex and he's about 37 years old (if I'm remembering correctly). For the first week or so of my working with him, all I did was feed him treats on his perch to build a relationship with him. Once we had established a bit more of a relationship, I began stepping him up onto my hand. Currently, I am moving him from his house to his travel crate and then back to his house. Working with Alex has to be one of my favorite things I've done this summer and I can't wait to see what we do next!

Photographs

Unless stated otherwise, all photographs I post are taken by me either on my phone or camera. All photographs I take and wish to post have been approved by my intern supervisor and department curator. I took many pictures while shadowing the Northern Trail but I didn't have the chance to get any of them approved to post online.