Calgary Zoo peacocks ready to strut their stuff again after fox attack

Peacocks at the Calgary Zoo are almost ready to leave their temporary enclosure and fan their plumage once again, after a red fox attack months earlier.

A staff member discovered the partially-eaten carcass of one of the exotic birds in April. That meant the remaining seven peacocks were at risk. The zoo put them in a fox-resistant, temporary enclosure.

"What we're doing right now is just doing a final repair work and perimeter check," zoo spokesperson Trish Exton-Parder told CBC News on Wednesday.

"We have a lot of construction just with our flood mitigation wall going up and some completion on some habitats here, so we want to make sure that we really make that completely secure so that we don't have any new visitors in. Then over the next week, we will have those peacocks out again. We will slowly integrate them back onto the island."

Family of foxes

It was later discovered that the hungry fox that feasted on the colourful bird was pregnant.

"Well that little fox turned out to be a girl fox who was expecting, and so we ended up with a family of foxes," Exton-Parder explained.

"So, a new species to look after here on zoo grounds. Our animal-care team made sure that she and her kits were happy and bounding until we found them a suitable home back in the wild."

Peacocks are allowed to move freely about the zoo property through much of the year, and that freedom will be restored later this week.

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