Secretary bird settles at Moscow Zoo after a 30-year break

The Red Book secretary bird has returned back to the Moscow Zoo after a 30-year break. A two-year-old male secretary arrived from the French ornithological park Parc des Oiseaux as part of a European programme devoted to preserving rare animal species.

The bird owes its unusual name to its head plumage: in former times, secretaries at European magistrates adorned their wigs with similar feathers.

The Moscow Zoo had had secretary birds for many years, but then a protracted break followed.

«Our newcomer has adapted to his new surroundings and is feeling fine. He is currently under quarantine, but in a couple of weeks he will be transferred to the House of Birds pavilion and will spend the whole winter there,» Svetlana Akulova, Moscow Zoo General Director, told reporters.

The male weighs three kilos and is around 1.2 m tall. He is gradually getting used to the zoo staff, becoming more sociable and friendlier by the day. When he does not communicate with the zoo keepers, he explores his aviary with great curiosity.

The return of this bird species to the zoo’s collection is an important event for the zoo, Svetlana Akulova said, as it will now be able to take an active part in the European programme for the conservation of the secretary bird population in captivity. The zoo hopes to receive a female secretary bird in the coming years so as to form a couple and get it to reproduce regularly.

The secretary bird is listed as «vulnerable» on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The populations of these birds in the wild are shrinking because their natural habitats are being destroyed and also due to poaching.

Secretary birds inhabit areas from the southern borders of the Sahara desert to southern Africa. Incidentally, a secretary bird is depicted on the national emblem of the South African Republic. In local folk legends these birds are often associated with protection from danger and evil spirits. The aborigines believed that secretary bird feathers could protect a hunter from a poisonous snake bite.

Though often compared with the heron due to its long and strong legs, the secretary bird has hawks and falcons among its closest relatives.

The secretary bird is a fairly large species: adult birds have a body length of up to 150 cm and a wingspan of more than two metres. Despite this, their weight does not exceed five kilos. Males are slightly larger than females, otherwise you can’t distinguish between them.

Unlike other raptor birds that hunt from the air, secretary birds spend most of their life on the ground. Thanks to their long legs, they can run fast when chasing their prey. They feed mostly on snakes, lizards, amphibians, insects, rodents and small birds.         

A hunting secretary bird runs, flapping its wings loudly, trying to force the low-lying prey to give itself away, and then chases it. With poisonous snakes the tactics is different: a bird catches up with a snake, running in a zigzag fashion in order to disorient the reptile, and then stabs its beak into the snake’s spine.

Secretary birds masterfully avoid snake bites, spreading one of the wings and using it as a shield. Their fearless nature and amazing hunting skills held these birds in great reverence among the locals for centuries.

Secretary birds do not stick to a particular area. It is only during the mating season and chick raising that males mark their home territory and drive other males away if they attempt to intrude on it. For the rest of the year, they move from one place to another in search of prey. By the way, secretary birds are a monogamous species: they remain faithful to their mates all their life and do not mate with others, unless one of the partners dies.

The Moscow Zoo constantly replenishes its collection that already boasts more than a thousand species and 8,000 animals. An aardvark and three couples of Papuan penguins appeared there in 2017, followed by two Amur tigers this year. A couple of rare fossa cats are expected to arrive from Madagascar shortly.     

Just recently, a northern fur seal was born, the first in 20 years. The pup was named Roger. He has already left the indoor nursery and joined other seals in an open-air enclosure located in the Zoo’s new area near the pedestrian bridge.