DEWEY

Anyone who works with animals will tell you that the most difficult part of the job is when you lose one of the animals to whom you've become so attached.  No matter the circumstances, it never gets any easier.  This morning it is with a heavy heart that we say good-bye to Dewey, our magnificent Bateleur Eagle.

Dewey was received at the World Bird Sanctuary in 1986 as a confiscation.  We determined by plumage at the time we got her that she was a 1985 hatch.  That would make her 26 years old--a ripe old age for a bird of prey of her size.

Once we knew Dewey was going to be a great education bird, she was sent to Busch Gardens, Florida, where we had just started our bird show.  For the next 17 years Dewey was in every show we presented at Busch Gardens...an amazing 68,000 shows, give or take a few!!  In fact, Dewey got her name from the Anheuser-Busch wine cooler, Dewey Stevens, which was very popular at the time we acquired her.  


Most recently Dewey free flew at our Little Rock Zoo bird show, but she started free flying at the Milwaukee County Zoo in the spring of 2003, just after our Busch Gardens, Tampa show closed.  She was also in shows for many years at Grant's Farm here in St. Louis.  Whenever she first appeared on stage you could always hear a collective "wow" from the audience. 

In addition to all of the above day to day appearances, Dewey has also been seen by literally millions of people when she was featured on the Rain Bird float in the Tournament of Roses Parade – twice!

With many birds of prey you cannot distinguish between males and females because the plumage is very similar.  Back when we acquired Dewey she was all brown, which is the color of all juvenile Bateleurs.  The only way to tell whether or not Dewey was a boy or a girl was to surgically sex the bird, which involves anesthesia and a qualified veterinarian.  However, with Bateleur Eagles the adult female has silvery white coloration across the top side of the secondaries (the large wing feathers closest to the bird's body), as you can see on the beautiful picture of Dewey below.  Since we didn't really need to know if she was a male or female, we just waited until she acquired her adult plumage at age 7. 

Dewey always seemed to prefer women to men, and loved to bathe and sun herself.  If you were lucky enough to catch Dewey while she was sunning, you would have seen the beautiful wing coloration of the female of the species.


Dewey will be sorely missed by staff and audience members alike.

Submitted by Gay Schroer, World Bird Sanctuary Volunteer/Photographer in collaboration with Jeff Meshach, Assistant Director