A Day of Conflicting Feelings

We were staying in North Devon for the first time, so Bruce booked a special experience for me at the Exmoor Zoo. Let me backtrack a bit here. I have strong feelings about wildlife and support a number of wildlife charities. Visiting Kenya two years ago and seeing elephants, giraffes, lions, etc. in the wild was thrilling and reinforced my feelings that animals deserve to remain in their native habitats. Now, I realize the idea behind zoos is to expose people to wildlife, thus making them care more about the animals and inspiring them to be more mindful of them and maybe even advocate for their protection. When done well, as in the case of the Howletts Wildlife Sanctuary in Canterbury, they fulfill that mission and help animals. That's not always the case, however.

We drove way out into the countryside and arrived at Exmoor Zoo. The cashier welcomed us, gave us a map and told us where we would meet for our experience. In the meanwhile we were welcome to enjoy the rest of the zoo. As we walked around it became clear that this was not a wonderful place for the animals. So many of them were in tiny enclosures that offered no space for natural behaviors.

The worst part, to my mind, was that so many animals and birds were from tropical locations and they were having to endure frigid temperatures. We saw several birds shivering from the cold and many of the animals were huddled together under their enclosures' heating lamps to try to stay warm.

Many of them, like the badgers, were pacing back and forth in their enclosures, a sure sign of stress. Others just sat motionless, looking as though they had given up.

Why, you may ask, did we stay? Well, Bruce had booked an experience for me that I was very excited about. Exmoor Zoo has the only shoebill stork in the UK and I have longed to see one for years. They are found in tropical east Africa, especially Uganda. Since I don't know when, or if, I'll get to Uganda, Exmoor Zoo provided my best opportunity. They are magnificent birds, standing four to five feet tall, and usually described as looking prehistoric.

The experience started with an orientation with the head keeper, Derek, where he sussed out our knowledge of the shoebills. Most people know only that they're unusual. The keeper was happy to learn that we knew a bit about their behavior and could tell him what we hoped to see. He then handed us off to another keeper, Tina, who took us down to the enclosure. We had to clean our boots in a sterilizing solution so we didn't track any harmful substances into the enclosure. We were led to a bench at the bottom of the enclosure where we sat and listened to the keeper. She was very knowledgeable but after a while I rather longed for her just to stop talking for a minute and let us enjoy the quiet. Oh, well. She walked up to the top of the enclosure and invited Abou, the shoebill, to come down and visit us.

Tina tried to get Abou to play with some sticks

but she quickly tired of that and walked back up the hill.

While Abou groomed, Tina told us how their numbers in the wild are dwindling. Part of the reason for this is that Americans are buying them to keep as pets. It's not legal, but with the right payoffs to the right people, a shoebill stork can be had for about $25,000. I also learned that there are more tigers kept as "pets" in America than there are tigers left in the wild. It's horrible that in the US, illegally trading in wildlife is a "fashionable" way to show off your wealth.

A bit later, Tina walked up the hill to try to coach Abou down and suddenly Abou flew down, landing about 4 feet from us. What a thrill!

There were a couple of behaviors that I had hoped to see, but after talking to Derek, I feared I wouldn't. The first behavior is the bow, the second is the clapping of the beak. I learned that both of these are behaviors associated with mating. How surprising, then, to see Abou perform them both. Tina said that because Abou was hand raised, she's a bit confused by the whole mating thing. She said that when you see the feathers on the top of the head standing up, it means that Abou is excited, potentially sexually excited.

Here's a small bow, though often the behavior is repeated.

Here's the clapping behavior

We spent about an hour in the enclosure watching her but toward the end of our time with her, Abou decided it was time for her to be fed, so she flew toward her little "house" to let Tina know it was time for dinner.

She's a magnificent bird and I'm so grateful to have had this experience.

Though it's clear that the employees love the animals there, it's a shame that the zoo couldn't acquire some of the vast open countryside around it to enlarge the enclosures and give the animals a better experience. For Abou, things might improve because she's on a worldwide registry that aims to mate shoebills. Apparently there's a zoo in Singapore that has expressed interest in her. At least there she wouldn't be left to shiver in the cold.