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Central Park Zoo News
Meet the Keas
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©WCS/J.Maher
| The Central Park Zoo’s newest residents have a knack for making their presence known. They yell out their own name! The zoo welcomes two olive green parrots called keas, named for their signature bird song, “keeeaaaa.” The pair, a male and female, can be found outside the zoo’s Rain Forest. Visitors can keep an eye out for a flash of bright orange plumage beneath the birds’ wings.
Highly intelligent, keas are known for their inquisitive nature. Dubbed the “clowns” of the parrot species, they make themselves right at home in ski lodges and other human dwellings. These mischievous birds also tend to chew everything in sight. Otherwise, they keep busy by doing aerobatics, rolling around in the snow, and bathing in puddles of thawed ice. During summertime at the Zoo, keepers give the birds ice blocks to help them stay cool.
Native to New Zealand, keas once numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Their population has dwindled to only about 1,000 to 5,000 birds today, and they are now considered vulnerable. This decline stems in part from human encroachment on their habitat, as well as the impact of grazing livestock. Since sheep eat the same grasses that keas depend on, the bird’s food supply has diminished.
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