I was scoping out new subjects for my next zoo videos, and went to a keeper chat yesterday to see Zuri for the first time. He’s the tiniest little raptor, full grown at less than eight inches tall. The zookeepers from the Natural Encounters building brought him out to the Werler lawn in front of the meerkat exhibit for some training.
In the wild, Zuri would hunt for only the smallest of prey, including insects, mice and lizards. Yesterday he “hunted” for a mouse treat while being tethered to a long wire. To make it all work, three keepers stood in a line, each about 20 feet apart from one another. The one to my right had Zuri perched on her leather glove. The wire ran from his ankle to the keeper in the middle, who kept hold of the other end.
The keeper on my left called “Zuri come!” and wiggled the mouse treat. Zuri flew in a graceful arc around the middle keeper and landed neatly on the leather-gloved hand of the left-hand keeper, snatching up the mouse treat just before landing.
I asked whether he’d be back out again soon, and the keepers do plan to train him at least once a week. If you’d like to see him, check the schedule on the blackboard just as you walk into the Natural Encounters building and see if their keeper chats of the day include a training with Zuri the african pygmy falcon.
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