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Date: 4/11/2019
SPRINGFIELD – Jack and Eva were ready for their close-up this past weekend.
The two bald eagles, a mated pair, are the newest additions to the Zoo in Forest Park. The zoo’s executive director Sarah Tsitso explained to Reminder Publishing the two birds from Alaska have made the zoo their new home since last November, but eagles take awhile to become accustomed into a new environment.
“They are prone to stress,” Tsitso said. “We gave them lots of time [to settle in]. We gave them the winter and they are doing very, very well.”
They were officially recognized as the zoo’s latest attraction at a press event on April 6.
Tsitso said both eagles could not fly due to injuries and has spent several years at the Alaska Raptor Center. The zoo had had an eagle among its exhibit, but the bird had passed and Tsitso applied to get Jack and Eva.
The process, she said, was “rigorous,” and took eight months to complete.
Luke Dukette, a West Springfield Boy Scout, conducted a fundraiser to help built the enclosure the eagles would need as his Eagle Scout project, she said.
Additional help in making the new exhibit a reality came from the East Longmeadow Rotary Club, the Chicopee Savings Foundation and Brodeur-Campbell Fence, Tsitso added.
Tsitso said that bald eagles are among the most regulated animals in the nation. Every morning her staff must check for an egg in the birds’ nest. If there is one the egg must be replaced with a dummy egg and the egg destroyed. The broken shell pieces must then be sent to the National Eagle Repository. Zoos cannot breed eagles.
The eagle feathers naturally shed by the birds must also be gathered and sent to the Repository as well she added. Eagle feathers cannot be sold.
Although bald eagles are no longer on the “endangered” list, they are on the “threatened” list, she said.
Having the bird there speaks to the zoo’s mission of education and rehabilitation, she said.
For more information, go to www.forestparkzoo.org.