The Attack of the Killer Amazon
My friend Trillium works as a zoo keeper in the Children's Zoo and one of her responsibilities is trimming the resident birds' beaks and nails. Consequently, all of the birds, especially the parrots, hate her with a passion.
The birds in the Children's Zoo either have educational jobs or are out on display to be admired by the public. Most of the parrots are the stars of the zoo's summer programs and live together in a large room. The parrots are treated well and each has their own spacious cage filled with lots of toys. These parrots include a Blue-and-Gold Macaw, Scarlet Macaw, Conure and 2 Amazons.
One day a few weeks ago Trillium was assigned the duty of cleaning the parrots' cages. Trillium knew most, if not all, of the parrots hated her but she wasn't worried. Cleaning the cages was a fairly simple task that did not require handling the birds. The trays in most cages are separated by a grate and these grates serve 2 purposes. One is to prevent the parrot from walking around in its droppings and the second is to protect housecleaning fingers from nippy beaks. Some cages do not have the grate and obviously require the bird to be removed from their cage for a successful cleaning.
But there was one parrot in the bunch who would need to be taken out of her cage and that was Bonnie. Bonnie was an Amazon Parrot and for those of you who don't know, Amazons have strong personalities and be quite aggressive towards those they don't know or like. Large parrots can bite down with the equivalent of 700 pounds per square inch. That's quite a chomp.
With these facts in mind, Trillium asked about Bonnie and was repeatedly assured by her co-workers that Bonnie was a very sweet bird. Still skeptical, Trillium grabbed a dowel to take Bonnie out of the cage. Bonnie vehemently attacked the stick before stepping on to it and proceeded to quickly advance towards Trillium.
Seeing Bonnie's obvious desire to chew her down to a bloody stump, Trillium switched the dowel to the other hand but the bird continued to race up the stick. Trillium put the stick and bird on the ground and backed off. Bonnie began a high-pitched cackle like that of the wicked witch of the west as she advanced towards Trillium. Bonnie had cracked open a can of whoop ass and intended to finish it.
Trillium recalls that Bonnie's body language was the epitome of Amazonian aggression, eyes pinning (pupils continually constricting and dilating) feathers fluffed, tail fanned and wings slightly extended. The bird had literally backed Trillium up against a wall. Trillium called for help and when help arrived, they couldn't believe their sweet, sweet Bonnie was so mean.
I guess their Bonnie had gone bad.
The birds in the Children's Zoo either have educational jobs or are out on display to be admired by the public. Most of the parrots are the stars of the zoo's summer programs and live together in a large room. The parrots are treated well and each has their own spacious cage filled with lots of toys. These parrots include a Blue-and-Gold Macaw, Scarlet Macaw, Conure and 2 Amazons.
One day a few weeks ago Trillium was assigned the duty of cleaning the parrots' cages. Trillium knew most, if not all, of the parrots hated her but she wasn't worried. Cleaning the cages was a fairly simple task that did not require handling the birds. The trays in most cages are separated by a grate and these grates serve 2 purposes. One is to prevent the parrot from walking around in its droppings and the second is to protect housecleaning fingers from nippy beaks. Some cages do not have the grate and obviously require the bird to be removed from their cage for a successful cleaning.
But there was one parrot in the bunch who would need to be taken out of her cage and that was Bonnie. Bonnie was an Amazon Parrot and for those of you who don't know, Amazons have strong personalities and be quite aggressive towards those they don't know or like. Large parrots can bite down with the equivalent of 700 pounds per square inch. That's quite a chomp.
With these facts in mind, Trillium asked about Bonnie and was repeatedly assured by her co-workers that Bonnie was a very sweet bird. Still skeptical, Trillium grabbed a dowel to take Bonnie out of the cage. Bonnie vehemently attacked the stick before stepping on to it and proceeded to quickly advance towards Trillium.
Seeing Bonnie's obvious desire to chew her down to a bloody stump, Trillium switched the dowel to the other hand but the bird continued to race up the stick. Trillium put the stick and bird on the ground and backed off. Bonnie began a high-pitched cackle like that of the wicked witch of the west as she advanced towards Trillium. Bonnie had cracked open a can of whoop ass and intended to finish it.
Trillium recalls that Bonnie's body language was the epitome of Amazonian aggression, eyes pinning (pupils continually constricting and dilating) feathers fluffed, tail fanned and wings slightly extended. The bird had literally backed Trillium up against a wall. Trillium called for help and when help arrived, they couldn't believe their sweet, sweet Bonnie was so mean.
I guess their Bonnie had gone bad.
posted by Chickadee @ 8:48 PM
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