-as soon as the zoo finds a contractor
CONSTRUCTION of the long-awaited natural habitat flight cage for harpy eagles in the Botanical Gardens is imminent, with bids for tender about to be advertised this week according to Chairman of the National Parks Commission Mr. John Caesar.
Caesar said work on the pen, in abeyance since 2003, will get started after a contractor has been identified, even though all the funds needed to complete it have not yet been realized.
“We want to start with what funds we have. So if what is available will build a foundation and a few other elements of the eagle’s natural habitat, we will start with that,” he said.
He said the NPC is appealing to the public and the private sector to donate materials or cash to make up the anticipated $10M more required to ensure that the majestic birds can live in conditions closely approximating their natural habitat and  similar to those existing in large modern zoos worldwide.
“We get money from government to run the zoo, but if we were to get all we wanted, then somebody will complain about a road which didn’t get fixed, or a bridge that didn’t get repaired. And so we want to be realistic about the extent to which government can help the zoo,” Caesar said, adding:
“The developments we want to see in the zoo in the next year or two would really need more donors in terms of financial donations and/or adoption of particular exhibits in relation to the maintenance and refurbishment.”
The making of the Harpy Eagle flight cage has been in the air since 2003, when the Chairman of the zoo of the Odense Municipality of Denmark and Georgetown Mayor, Hamilton Green officially handed over US$30,000 towards the building of such a cage at the back of the National Zoological Park in the Botanical Gardens.
The donation by the Odense Zoo was part of an ongoing sister-zoo relationship that it has with the Georgetown Zoo, based on an agreement signed with the National Parks Commission, under which, in 2001, four manatees were sent from the Georgetown Zoo to the Odense Zoo in order to re-energise the captive breeding in that territory.
Last Saturday, Chairman of the NPC acknowledged that the harpy eagle flight cage had taken a long while to get off the ground. He however defended the delay, saying that many people who had criticized the zoo about the long wait had not understood that the money donated had needed quite a lot of input for the design and other preparatory things which needed to be done.
He said the design alone, for example, took over two years to get done, but reiterated that the project will get going once a contractor has been identified.
The Harpy Eagle is native to North and South America, and with a wingspan of six-and-a-half feet, and claws as thick as a child’s wrist, it is the largest and most powerful bird of prey (raptor) in the world.
Its name refers to the harpies of Ancient Greek mythology which were wind spirits that took the dead to the underworld of Hades, and were said to have a body like an eagle and the face of a human.
In Guyana, the eagle, also known for its longevity and propensity to stick with one mate, is indigenous to the Pakaraima and Kanuku Mountain ranges.
In captivity, the bird needs much space if it is to be kept in conditions and landscapes similar to its natural habitat, a situation the Georgetown Zoo is now attempting to address.