Incidents witnessed at zoos?

M

Mike.R.

Active Member
Visited Warwick castle today and during the falconers show they was flying a verreaux's eagle owl. At the end of its part it was perched low in a tree and wouldn't come down. They tried a few pieces of food to get it down then seemingly gave up and carried on with the show letting out two Harris hawks. The eagle owl saw one of the Harris hawks and instantly took chase catching it in the air and dragging it down to the floor out of view from me and my family. Some staff starting running to save the hawk also sadly followed by dozens of public running to get a better view. Luckily the hawk survived.

We love travelling to falconry and bird parks around the uk and have seen dozens and dozens of bird shows it really shocked us how people made the decision to fly the hawks whilst a top predator like this was still in the arena. Maybe the show running to schedule was more important to them.

Has anyone else ever witnessed anything similar happen in the past?
 
Mike.R. said:
Visited Warwick castle today and during the falconers show they was flying a verreaux's eagle owl. At the end of its part it was perched low in a tree and wouldn't come down. They tried a few pieces of food to get it down then seemingly gave up and carried on with the show letting out two Harris hawks. The eagle owl saw one of the Harris hawks and instantly took chase catching it in the air and dragging it down to the floor out of view from me and my family. Some staff starting running to save the hawk also sadly followed by dozens of public running to get a better view. Luckily the hawk survived.

We love travelling to falconry and bird parks around the uk and have seen dozens and dozens of bird shows it really shocked us how people made the decision to fly the hawks whilst a top predator like this was still in the arena. Maybe the show running to schedule was more important to them.

Has anyone else ever witnessed anything similar happen in the past?
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At a "Hawk Walk" at Hedingham castle a few years back, one of the 2 hawks flew off. Eventually it came back, not while we were there though.
 
Mike.R. said:
Visited Warwick castle today and during the falconers show they was flying a verreaux's eagle owl. At the end of its part it was perched low in a tree and wouldn't come down. They tried a few pieces of food to get it down then seemingly gave up and carried on with the show letting out two Harris hawks. The eagle owl saw one of the Harris hawks and instantly took chase catching it in the air and dragging it down to the floor out of view from me and my family. Some staff starting running to save the hawk also sadly followed by dozens of public running to get a better view. Luckily the hawk survived.

We love travelling to falconry and bird parks around the uk and have seen dozens and dozens of bird shows it really shocked us how people made the decision to fly the hawks whilst a top predator like this was still in the arena. Maybe the show running to schedule was more important to them.

Has anyone else ever witnessed anything similar happen in the past?
Click to expand...

It's surprising that they didn't forsee such an incident occurring; or at least have the perspective to realise a bird getting injured or killed was worse than a minor disruption to scheduling.

I've never witnessed anything on this level, though failing to recall birds during flight demonstrations is a common occurrence and something I've seen before.

On a positive note, I remember viewing a marine mammal show as a child and a California sea lion bull was refusing to perform. The staff acknowledged he didn't want to perform that day and adapted the routine around him. It was good to see them respect his choice not to engage rather than pressure him to perform with repeat commands etc.
 
When I was in jungle park, Tenerife, a white stork flew off mid show.
And in Lake District Wildlife Park, a short clawed otter escaped whilst I was viewing its enclosure. Luckily the little guy was captured swiftly and safely put back by a staff member!
 
There are two that spring to mind:
  • the most memorable one has been when I was at David Fleay Wildlife Park a few years ago now. The keeper was opening up the pademelon enclosure for cleaning/feeding. The door opened up onto the tree kangaroo enclosure and one of the male pademelons quickly escaped into the tree kangaroo enclosure. He immediately started clawing at the tree roo's tail. The tree roo started vocalising and clambered down to start a boxing match. A lot of scratching, jumping and kicking was involved. It took the keeper a good 15 minutes to separate them. Both animals were seemingly unharmed.
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  • also at David Fleay (a lot happens there so it seems!), a Brolga escaped from its enclosure the day I visited. While I was at the park I noticed I only saw two out of the three cranes but didn't think anything of it. The zoo connects to a nature reserve and I visited afterwards for birding. About a kilometre into the walk I found the brolga. We locked eyes and it quickly walked past me. I notified the zoo later that day and they said they had managed to recapture it. There have been a few other zoo escapes I've seen as well (e.g. a Scarlet Honeyeater at Taronga Zoo).
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At the San Diego Zoo last week I witnessed a man walk behind a small aviary to try and get close to the reindeer. His mom was yelling at him to stop as he tried to reach over their fence on a slope in a no-guest area. He was a fully grown adult.

I wild egret flew into a pond enclosure at the Safari Park and started trying to attack a few of the stocked waterfowl.
 
WhistlingKite24 said:
There are two that spring to mind:
  • the most memorable one has been when I was at David Fleay Wildlife Park a few years ago now. The keeper was opening up the pademelon enclosure for cleaning/feeding. The door opened up onto the tree kangaroo enclosure and one of the male pademelons quickly escaped into the tree kangaroo enclosure. He immediately started clawing at the tree roo's tail. The tree roo started vocalising and clambered down to start a boxing match. A lot of scratching, jumping and kicking was involved. It took the keeper a good 15 minutes to separate them. Both animals were seemingly unharmed.
full

  • also at David Fleay (a lot happens there so it seems!), a Brolga escaped from its enclosure the day I visited. While I was at the park I noticed I only saw two out of the three cranes but didn't think anything of it. The zoo connects to a nature reserve and I visited afterwards for birding. About a kilometre into the walk I found the brolga. We locked eyes and it quickly walked past me. I notified the zoo later that day and they said they had managed to recapture it. There have been a few other zoo escapes I've seen as well (e.g. a Scarlet Honeyeater at Taronga Zoo).
full
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Love that top photo of the tree kangaroo and pademelon, it is a classic.
 
The one I probably remember the most was at Colchester Zoo a couple of years ago, when I saw an early attempt to mix their patas monkeys and Barbary macaques.

The macaques were in the outdoor enclosure just sitting around when the doors to the indoor area with the patas monkeys were opened. One of the female patas monkeys went outside and was immediately chased around the enclosure by the macaques, which were screaming at it and trying to catch it. At one point, one of the macaques ended up on the back of the patas and was trying to bite it, but the patas somehow got loose and tore off to the indoor area again. The entire incident probably lasted less than a minute. Not long after that, the patas monkeys were moved from the zoo.
 
DesertRhino150 said:
The one I probably remember the most was at Colchester Zoo a couple of years ago, when I saw an early attempt to mix their patas monkeys and Barbary macaques.

The macaques were in the outdoor enclosure just sitting around when the doors to the indoor area with the patas monkeys were opened. One of the female patas monkeys went outside and was immediately chased around the enclosure by the macaques, which were screaming at it and trying to catch it. At one point, one of the macaques ended up on the back of the patas and was trying to bite it, but the patas somehow got loose and tore off to the indoor area again. The entire incident probably lasted less than a minute. Not long after that, the patas monkeys were moved from the zoo.
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I wondered where/when they'd gone! Makes sense though, that was not going to work out...
 
When I was very little, in Ocean Dream Samudra (Back then called Gelanggang Samudra), in a show after a performance, two sea lions start biting each other for several minutes until they were dispersed by keepers.
 
WhistlingKite24 said:
There are two that spring to mind:
  • the most memorable one has been when I was at David Fleay Wildlife Park a few years ago now. The keeper was opening up the pademelon enclosure for cleaning/feeding. The door opened up onto the tree kangaroo enclosure and one of the male pademelons quickly escaped into the tree kangaroo enclosure. He immediately started clawing at the tree roo's tail. The tree roo started vocalising and clambered down to start a boxing match. A lot of scratching, jumping and kicking was involved. It took the keeper a good 15 minutes to separate them. Both animals were seemingly unharmed.
full

  • also at David Fleay (a lot happens there so it seems!), a Brolga escaped from its enclosure the day I visited. While I was at the park I noticed I only saw two out of the three cranes but didn't think anything of it. The zoo connects to a nature reserve and I visited afterwards for birding. About a kilometre into the walk I found the brolga. We locked eyes and it quickly walked past me. I notified the zoo later that day and they said they had managed to recapture it. There have been a few other zoo escapes I've seen as well (e.g. a Scarlet Honeyeater at Taronga Zoo).
full
Click to expand...
Those two weren't suppose to be in the same exhibit? I dont know that. Those action shots are one of the best photos on zoochat
 
My only real animal related incident was a small chimp fight on my last visit to bioparc (the chimps were quite vocal during the whole affair)
 
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