Museum macaw welcomes visitors
The COVID-19 lockdown was hard on everyone. We couldn't frequent our favourite eateries, socialize with our friends in person, or celebrate major milestones in our lives.
But one Halifax resident took the lockdown particularly hard since he couldn't even participate in all the things many of us substituted our lost activities with like Zoom calls or ordering in. That's because this resident is an 18-year-old rainbow macaw named Merlin.
Merlin has been the mascot at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic since 2006. His main caretaker is Johanna Kristjansson, and she says Merlin helps to remind people about the role animals have historically played in maritime history.
“If a ship was ready to sail, and a bird of any kind got up into the rigging and didn't leave, it was there for the [long haul],” says Kristjansson. “And somebody better take care of it.”
Kristjansson comes from a long line of Halifax seafarers. There's even a history of maritime animal husbandry in her family tree: her grandfather cared for a stow-away spider monkey as a sailor in the 1920s.
She takes her role as Merlin's caretaker very seriously, especially when Merlin was forced to spend the first lockdown alone in an empty museum, something that was repeated in late 2020 as Halifax museums closed due to the second wave of COVID19.
“They were thinking of sending him to my house, but I said that wouldn't work because I have a regular-sized home,” she explains. “I came in ... the whole time we were in lockdown ... every morning at six o'clock, and did my regular routine.”
Kristjansson and a handful of other museum staff were Merlin's only contact for the duration of the lockdown, which took a toll on the attention-loving bird. He became so upset over the lack of visitors, he began plucking his own chest feathers. Overgrooming is a sign of stress in birds, so Merlin was pre
scribed anxiety medication.
“Because he's been handraised, he thinks he's one of us,” says Kristjansson. “He didn't have his faces around. He didn't have his flock; his family was not here. He felt like the world had abandoned him, that's what I'm assuming.”
Merlin has fans all over the world, who, unbeknownst to Merlin, are able to watch him 24-7 through a webcam installed at the edge of his enclosure. People from Finland to Arizona tune in to check up on him and even send him gifts of toys and walnuts, his favourite treat.
Their concern for his wellbeing during lockdown led to the creation of Squawk Talk, a weekly webcast where Kristjansson or fellow employee and parrot whisperer Richard Macmichael interact with Merlin and catch his fans up on how he's doing.
“We average anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 people tuning in on our social media platforms,” says Macmichael. “Some of these people have been following Merlin since day one. The neat thing is their common passion for this dude has created a family of friends. That's the kind of love that people have for this guy.”
As the spread of COVID eased in the Maritimes, the museum was able to reopen, and Merlin thrived with visitors returning. Some even came out just to see him, like Caitlin Mclaughlin and her three-year-old son Eamonn.
“This museum was actually one of the last places we visited before the lockdown, and he was very taken with Merlin, and has been talking about him all summer,” says Mclaughlin, as Eamonn chatted eagerly with Merlin.
“We thought that this would be a good time to come and visit him.”
Visiting Merlin is the best thing you can do to keep his spirits up, and you'll have ample opportunity to do so over the years to come. Macaws can live well into their 80s, so it's not unlikely that kids like Eamonn will be bringing their own children to meet him someday.
“There's a good chance [descendants will] bring my three-times great-grandchildren here to see him,” says Kristjansson, whose own tenure with the museum will be outlived by Merlin's. Though she plans to keep visiting him well into retirement.
“As long as I'm on the right side of the sod!”