Arriving on a jet plane: Vulture named John Denver at Virginia Zoo
Love is in the air at the Virginia Zoo — at least national animal officials hope so.
The Norfolk site’s newest resident is a 4-year-old cinerous vulture named John Denver. Officials think he’s a good fit to breed with Eve, a 14-year-old female vulture who already lives here.
It’s been a long journey to get John Denver to Virginia.
In September 2019, the zoo’s two female vultures — Eve and Meera — were matched with males at other zoos by the Species Survival Plan of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, according to the Norfolk zoo’s blog.
But the pandemic delayed animal moves until October. That month, the zoo said goodbye to Meera, who left to mate with another vulture at South Carolina’s Riverbanks Zoo.
John Denver arrived shortly afterward. He’d been born at the Denver Zoo — hence the name — and flown as an egg to be raised at the Living Desert Zoo in California. He was flown into Washington in the fall before being driven down to Norfolk and quarantined for 30 days.
After getting a clean bill of health from the zoo’s veterinarian, John Denver finally met Eve in December.
Zoo staff modified the birds’ habitat by adding temporary mesh to split the exhibit into two spaces, allowing the pair to hear and smell each other without contact.
After a few days, the mesh was lifted and the two have been lovebirds ever since, the zoo says — preening each other, playing with toys together and staying close.
“Nothing says potential love like tearing up a fish carcass together,” the zoo said in a news release.
Cinerous vultures are large and broad-winged scavengers whose habitats are in near-threatened status due to decreasing availability of food and direct human threats such as poisoning, according to the news release. Their global population — located in parts of Europe, Asia and the Middle East — is estimated at 14,000 to 20,000 adults.
John Denver’s wingspan is 10 feet. He and Eve can be seen in the zoo’s Asia — Trail of the Tiger exhibit from the boardwalk that overlooks the tapirs.