Is Ontario-bound parrot blue or just pining for the Fords?
Halifax museum mascot showing signs of stress since start of pandemic
A parrot in Nova Scotia that has been showing signs of depression since the COVID-19 pandemic is moving to Ontario for a change of scenery and to make new friends.
Merlin has been the mascot of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax since 2006, but his routine was disrupted when COVID-19 emerged in 2020 and the museum closed.
Kim Reinhardt, general manager of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, said the lack of interaction with visitors led Merlin to bite his feathers, a sign of stress, and the behaviour continued even after museum operations fully resumed.
During a Zoom interview on Thursday, while snow fell outside the window, Merlin sat on his perch and preened his bluish-green feathers. He lifted his claw and rubbed his eye.
“Peek-a-boo,” he said, cocking his head and trying to catch Reinhardt’s eye. He went back to preening after she looked at him and replied: “peek-a-boo.”
The museum has a number of toys to keep the intelligent, active and social bird occupied, and a team of staff members spend time with Merlin, but Reinhardt said the company is not enough.
Twenty-two-year-old Merlin is “quite talkative,” with the words “cracker” and “peek-a-boo” part of his regular vocabulary, and despite his depression, he “laughs on a regular basis.”
Reinhardt said parrots like to have companionship with other birds. “We can’t provide that.”
So, after consultation with a veterinarian, it was decided that Merlin would leave Halifax on April 15 to join a flock of fellow macaws — large members of the parrot family — at Safari Niagara in Fort Erie, Ont.
Safari Niagara happened to be looking for another macaw, Reinhardt said, because there is one bird there that is currently single.