Two Dallas Zoo exhibits where visitors mingle with birds are closed while the zoo waits out a bird flu detection in neighboring Tarrant County, and the earliest they could reopen is Wednesday, Oct. 28.
The zoo announced Monday that it had shut the A.D. Martin Sr. Forest Aviary in the Wilds of Africa and Travis and Zach's Birds Landing in the Lacerte Family Children's Zoo to protect its flock from highly pathogenic avian influenza.
In its announcement, the zoo said the virus can travel on contaminated material, including droppings from wild birds carried in on people's shoes, so it is closing the spaces that guests share with birds.
What prompted it
The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed the virus in a wild Canada goose found in Tarrant County. According to USDA records updated Oct. 16 and cited by Chron, the bird was picked up on Oct. 6, and testing on Oct. 14 found the EA H5 strain.
Kim Gray, the zoo's senior curator of birds and ectotherms, told Chron that the detection moved the zoo to its "HIGH" avian flu alert level. Staff had also been tracking other cases around Texas and rising activity along the Central Flyway during fall migration, she said.
What stays and what moves
Birds in the two closed exhibits remain in their habitats. Ducks that normally live in the Children's Zoo are now in a holding area out of public view, according to Gray. The flamingos are staying in their habitat with extra precautions in place.
At Birds Landing, visitors walk among cockatiels, conures and similar birds and can feed them. The Forest Aviary houses free-flying African species such as turacos, ibises and storks.
