New on display and Updates from the Park

Vultures are admittedly not liked by many people and mostly because of a lack of understanding about them. Our King Vultures though are absolutely gorgeous and amazing birds. The female comes to us on loan from the Montecasino Bird Gardens in Johannesburg and the male is Bishop who was one of our show birds. They are one of only 3 pairs in the country which makes them even more special to us. The King Vultures are found in large parts of South and Central America where their bright colours serve as camouflage in the rainforest. They went on display on Tuesday 24 September and have already drawn large crowds to their exhibit near the entrance of the park.

The storm-water drain is still being installed more than 2 months after work started due to major delays with reinforced concrete structures being found and taking more than 2 weeks to break through, granite rock which also delayed the process and numerous electrical cables which weren't on any plans the contractors were given. The bulk of the work in the park has been done though and we have started moving birds back into some of the enclosures. There was severe damage done to some of the enclosures and these will be rebuilt over the next month or so. New pathways will also be installed as well as new landscaping, safety barriers and a garden opposite the show auditorium. All this work will be finished by the December holidays and we again apologise for the inconvenience caused during this construction. The big advantage though is that the park will no longer flood during heavy rains and the birds will be safer because of this drainage system.

Finally for now, we are embarking on some major recycling projects and have obtained a recycling box from Green Office who recycle old printer cartridges. More than 300 million printer cartridges end up in landfills every year and this is a way we can help reduce that. We would like to encourage members of the public to bring their empty printer cartridges to the park and dispose of them in our recycling box. Money raised from the recycling of these cartridges will be donated to the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project. Go to www.ground-hornbill.org for more information about them and the work they do. We are proud to support them and have done so for the past 9 years. Help us to help them and bring your empty cartridges to the park.