Harpy Eagles at the Guyana Zoo

In today’s Chronicle, there was a rather nice feature about the two Harpy eagles that can be found in the zoo. It appears as though these harpy’s have been living together at the zoo for the past 57 years (imagine birds can live together longer than our president and his ‘wife’).

Anybody who has seen these eagles though in the last few years know that they look sick, struggling, mellow, without life it appears but what can one expect after being forced to live in such a small cage for so long. I can't even begin to think when last it was since either of those birds flew. Imagine being a bird and not able to fly, that is what we have subjected these animals to.

These are proud, strong birds that thrive in the wild and if the zoo was serious about making them an attraction to the public and taking care of the birds, then long ago they would have gotten them a bigger, better cage. As it is now and have been for a while, these birds are punishing. The just stand on their perch all day and stare. Harpy’s can be found in this country, why can’t we get a few younger looking birds in the zoo (not in that small cage of course)

I’m not sure when, but didn’t the German people give a ton of money to provide a proper habitat for these majestic creatures. Can the nice people over at the zoo say something about that? The current cage apart from being too small is way at the front of the zoo where the noise and traffic are definite disturbances to them.

When an animal is taken from the wild, and placed in a zoo, they should at least be placed in a habitat that appears as their natural home or as close to it as possible. What then are those frickin birds doing there? I’m sure a harpy in the Kanuku mountains doesn’t have to put up with constant, noisy traffic all day that those at the Guyana zoo has to endure all day, every day for over 50 years.

The zoo needs an urgent make-over; its standards have been allowed to fall for too long. For all the talk about the great animals that can be found in the land, the Guyana zoo is a horrible let down.