What was your impression of this place, devilfish? Some of it looks really awful from the photos in terms of bad exhibits and interactions with the wildlife (this cassowary, the gibbon, the tiger cub) that would likely not be considered responsible in accredited zoos.
I'm horrified at the suggestion that anyone would declaw a Cassowary, BUT even a declawed one could kick you into the middle of next week.
I understand that juvenile Cassowaries can actually be quite handleable until they hit sexual maturity. Then they kill you.
I'm horrified at the suggestion that anyone would declaw a Cassowary, BUT even a declawed one could kick you into the middle of next week.
I understand that juvenile Cassowaries can actually be quite handleable until they hit sexual maturity. Then they kill you.
Many Us-Zoo do the same with handraised cats like serval,caracal or clouded leopard used for their animal shows....
As I remember correctly, a couple of years ago a young trainer keeper, in the Usa ?, was killed by an cassowary, he has cleaned the Emu-enclosure and afterwards, he wanted to dot he same with the cassowary enclosure without any order to do that-he thought, they are the same harmless like the emus..
We didn't notice at all that he had been declawed. Absolutely outrageous if he is. What seemed like an interesting and well-done presentation is brought down to be no better than the other show we saw at the park.
It reduces my 'good' points of the zoo down to just two:
1. The flamingo pool is a good size
2. White tiger/white lion signage is more scientific & informative than expected (but there's no liger signage).
David, I really wasn't a fan of this place. Zooman suggested that they must be breeding animals for the exotic pet trade and after our visit I agree.
Tim Brown and I posted some comments on the place here: http://www.zoochat.com/38/whose-visited-what-year-404419/#post863819
You're right, the cassowary you've seen has indeed claws, even the"big one", but it isn't full grown. So I've checked my own picture sof the bird I've made a couple of years ago, and it is a diffrent individual-without his big claws, they were complete removed. And I've watched twice the birdshow and both times, the cassowary was interacting with visitors.And he was bigger than the animal you've seen.So it was probably a female.
So it seems, Jungle Island does have more than just one trained cassowary.....maybe the first one died in the meantime, so this bird might be a new one.
