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The zookeeper approached the largest of the aviaries in the Ephestalia section of the zoo, the crowd clumping along behind her like a waddle of penguins.
“Here we are at the Ephestalian aviary - I know this is what you’ve all been most excited to see! Our mated pair of pitneens are a bit famous after our zoo’s social media posts about them went viral last year. You can see them in the far right side of the aviary, perched on top of their castle, where they’re incubating their eggs.”
“Pitneens are a critically endangered species native to Ephestalia, and were frequently depicted in art, murals, and architecture even before unification. Today, they make their homes in all kinds of habitats, adapting from trees to tall buildings, in the mountains and by the ocean. They migrate to stick to the warmer weather, though.”
“Soooo valid,” she heard from the crowd, which had now spread out.
“Our zoo has the world’s leading program for breeding pitneens and releasing them back into their native habitat, where their numbers have grown from a few hundred to several thousand today. In case you missed the story, I can sum up - these two are male and female, as you can see, and like most birds, the male is the brightly colored one. Juvenile pitneens, though, don’t look very special. Very dull brown and black, and much smaller than their female counterparts.
“Both of these pitneens were born and raised here at the zoo, in an aviary behind the scenes where all the pitneen live as a colony. In the past few years, while still a juvenile, the male bird, Gen, visited the female, Irene, all the time, leaving her gifts and attempting to woo her, but she completely ignored him and dumped his gifts out of her nest. She favored the company of older, fully grown male birds, but hadn’t accepted any as a mate. One night, a string from a balloon blew into the aviary and Gen’s foot became tangled and trapped. By the time the zookeepers found him in the morning, they were unable to save his foot. While Gen was away being cared for by the vets, his adult plumage fully grew in. When he was released back into the aviary, he returned to giving gifts to Irene, but this time she didn’t ignore him.They’ve been inseparable since. Pitneen mate for life.”
“Hashtag life goals,” a voice sighed.
“Birds survive in the wild all the time with only one foot, but it was determined due to Gen’s injury and Irene’s connection him, it’d be best for the continuity of the species for Gen to remain in captivity and assist in the breeding and education program, so he and Irene can help spread awareness of these endangered birds around the world and start a new dynasty of pitneen families.
“While most pitneen choose to roost inside the castle birdhouse, Gen and Irene built their nest on the top of the highest tower, where right now they’re incubating two eggs expected to hatch in another week or so.”
“But there’s more than pitneen in our aviary! We also have some rescued birds, such as our yellow-legged gull, Relius. He was caught in a fisherman’s net, damaging his wings. Our vets determined he wouldn’t be able to hunt to survive in the wild, so we moved him in. He’s formed a tight bond with another bird that enjoys fishing, Teleus, our white-tailed eagle.” The seagull was sitting on a box attached high up on a wall, facing away from a large mottled tan-and-brown eagle with bright yellow beak and legs.
“You may have noticed some land-dwellers in here as well! Combining species makes the habitats more like nature, and provides some enrichment for all of them. Peeking out of the burrow over here are two of our caggi, Kamet and Costis. They’re inseparable after being rescued from the Taymets during a serious drought.”