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A wild fox from nearby Rock Creek Park killed 25 flamingos after entering a fence at the National Zoo in the Northwest District of Columbia
Officials at the facility said the massacre was discovered early Monday morning when an employee who helped run the bird house where the flock of 74 flamingos at the zoo lived saw a fox in the flamingo’s yard and found the dead birds. The fox has escaped, zoo officials said. They said they believed he had probably penetrated a hole the size of a baseball into the heavy mesh fence around the flamingo’s habitat.
The birds are “American flamingos”, best known for their pink color and standing on one leg. The zoo said the fox also killed a duck in the north, and three other flamingos were injured and are being treated at the zoo’s veterinary hospital.
Brandi Smith, director of the National Zoo, said the death scene found by staff around 6:20 a.m. was “horrible.” Smith said the incident probably “happened on the night when the foxes are most active.”
She said workers had found the hole, which was “chewed into the net and allowed the fox to come in and out.” Smith said this was “normal fox behavior,” noting that foxes are predators and that she is not worried that the fox has rabies. Officials said they had tried to trap the fox, but have so far failed to do so.
“We’re still in shock right now,” Smith said.
Fox caught in the Capitol and euthanized, tested positive for rabies
In the wild, flamingos can fly away in danger, but flamingos at the zoo have clipped wings and may not have been able to protect themselves from the fox, zoo officials said.
“This is a heartbreaking loss for us and everyone who cares for our animals,” Smith said in a statement.
The rest of the flamingo herd was moved inside their barn, officials said, and the ducks were taken to a “covered, safe outdoor area.” The bird house at the zoo is closed to the public because it is under renovation.
The flamingo killings mark the first “predator web breach” since the 1970s, when the zoo set up the flamingo exhibition, officials said.
Smith said in a statement that “the barrier we used has been inspected and is being used by other accredited zoos across the country.” She said the crews would work to “strengthen our habitats”.
Officials said there were regular checks and inspections by staff of the animal exhibits several times a day. The last inspection of the outer yards around the birdhouse was done around 2:30 pm on Sunday. During the inspection, officials said “no danger zones have been observed in the flamingo’s habitat”.
But a check on Monday morning revealed several problems, including a new hole in the network.
Zoo officials said they did not know exactly how the hole was made and are actively investigating the incident. They have reinforced the fence since then. The crews also set traps in the area in case the fox returns, and added a “cable hotline” that would give the predator a slight shock if he tried to climb.
The fence was last replaced in 2017 and has passed an accreditation check by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, according to zoo officials.
Live traps have been set up around the birdhouse to try to “catch all sorts of predators,” officials said. Digital camera traps with motion-activated infrared sensors are also designed to capture night activity.
Last month, a mother fox and her three kittens were euthanized after several incidents in the US Capitol in which an elderly fox attacked or bit passers-by. The mother fox tested positive for rabies.
Three sets of foxes from the territory of the US Capitol have been euthanized
The American flamingo and the northern ducktail are the species of least concern, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species. Flamingos are found in the wild in the Caribbean and on the north coast of South America and usually live 40 to 60 years.
There are about 80,000 to 90,000 American flamingos in the wild, but they are facing habitat loss due to “mineral extraction and human anxiety,” zoo officials said.
Smith said her staff was “amazing” and “went into immediate recovery” to protect the remaining flamingos and 17 other ducks.
“We did everything right, but this fox came in,” Smith said. “Our job right now is to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
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