THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 11, 1995 TAG: 9504110327
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
An Andean condor with a 10-foot wingspread is on view, uncaged, at the Virginia Zoo in Lafayette Park on Granby Street. Just hopping about and flapping around in God's open air. A creature to cherish.
When you see that huge brown bird of prey you get an idea how Sinbad the Sailor felt when he saw the fabulous Roc of Arabian Nights that could carry off an elephant.
As the Roc approached in the air from afar, it looked ``like a cloud,'' said Sinbad, an expansive sort.
As I approached Saturday the ``World of Birds,'' which will be at the zoo until May 15, a Victoria eagle from Africa flew up from the show's staging area fronting three sets of bleachers.
It lit in a pine tree to the delight of the boo birds in the bleachers.
Weighing 5 pounds, the Victoria eagle is a mite smaller than its cousin, the bald eagle, which is as majestic an aerial spectacle as we can get in the wild hereabouts.
But the Andean condor, weighing 20 pounds, dwarfs either eagle.
The 2 1/2-year-old condor is on loan from the Buffalo zoo. It will rejoin a breeding program there when it matures at 6 or 7.
The breeding program was set up for Andean condors so biologists could learn from raising them how best to propagate the much rarer, endangered California condor.
The California species has been teetering on the brink of extinction. Although the Andean cousin is threatened, its population has stabilized.
The rearing of Andeans has gone so well that there are ``quite a few at zoos around the country,'' said trainer Wayne Terry.
The Andean visiting our zoo has plumage in shades of brown with a darker head. As she matures, all her attire will darken and sport a band of gray feathers on her wings and a white ruff around her neck.
She is gentle, ``just a little sweetheart,'' said Terry. He fed her as a fledgling, and she sees him as a surrogate parent and reverts to the ``food begging'' of her infancy, standing with her breast to the ground, head up, while she pumps her huge wings.
In the wild the Andean condor eats carrion, mainly. In the show, she gets a nutritious blend that looks like hamburger.
Why don't the birds, when performing, simply take off and fly away?
``Basically, they don't know what `away' is,'' said Terry. ``They were raised by us and in zoos. They're comfortable around us. We give them no reason to want to leave.
``Occasionally, on a nice day, they'll get in the air and soar around. They always come back. In upwards of 20 years we've never lost a bird.''
The trainers hope that spectators will leave feeling that birds of prey are good, an integral part of the world we live in.
Shows are at 10:30 a.m., noon, and 3:30 p.m. every day except Monday. There is no charge beyond the zoo's regular admission fees. ILLUSTRATION: A CONDOR COMES CALLING
MOTOYA NAKAMURA
[Color Photos]
Staff photos
Wayne Terry, bird trainer at the Virginia Zoo, with an Andean condor
that's part of the ``World of Birds'' show at the zoo until May 15.
by CNB