The Striated Caracara is found in
the Falklands, where the species has a reputation for bold and mischievous
behaviour, and are referred to as “Johnny Rooks”. (Pic A. Hansen)
A powerful bird of prey native to
the Falkland Islands was captured on Wednesday after escaping from London Zoo
and spending 10 days on the loose. There were repeated sightings of the
two-foot tall raptor, called a Striated Caracara, in Camden this week, with one
report that it was seen “ripping into a whole cooked chicken”.
Zookeepers were able to
capture the bird after being tipped off that it was perched in a tree two miles
away in Kilburn Grange Park.
The species are primarily
scavengers, but the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) said they
will also attack smaller birds or animals if “a weak, defenceless target
arose”.
They are most commonly found on
the disputed remote and windswept Falkland Islands, where the species has a
reputation for bold and mischievous behaviour, and are referred to as “Johnny
Rooks”.
A spokesman said that that the
male bird, called Louie, was “well equipped for surviving in the urban
environment,” adding: “As a meat-eating forager he clearly found plenty of
scraps to dine on during his 10-day escapade.
Staff at the zoo were said to
have been carrying out daily searches and “tracking him on his travels around
north London” since escaping on January 6 during a “routine flying
demonstration”. They were pictured attempting to recapture the bird in the zoo
carpark that day and told passersby that the bird had been chased off by a
group of crows.
Ornithologists describe them as
intelligent and adaptable birds that can dig out prey from burrows and also
hunt at speeds of up to 60 miles an hour.
When botanist Charles Darwin, the
father of evolutionary biology, encountered the birds on a visit to the
Falklands in the 1830s, he was said to have been struck by their tameness,
inquisitive behaviour and opportunistic feeding habits.
