Last Wednesday morning, June 4, Sanctuary Manager Joe
Hoffmann was saddened to find that Gomez the Red-legged Seriema had died in his enclosure on the World
Bird Sanctuary exhibit line. He
apparently died in his sleep.
Gomez with a prize
Gomez was very old, having been hatched at the Woodland Park Zoo in
Seattle, Washington in 1991. A
Red-legged Seriema’s life expectancy in captivity is estimated as 10-20
years. At 23 years old Gomez
surpassed even the maximum life expectancy.
Gomez arrived at the World Bird Sanctuary in 1992 and began
his training to participate in educational programs. His specialty was to demonstrate how his species, native to
South America, hunts in the wild by capturing prey and slamming it against the
ground to kill it. According to
WBS Director, Jeff Meshach, Gomez was our best and most reliable “slammer.” He spent the majority of his education
program career at Busch Gardens Tampa in the World Bird Sanctuary’s educational
shows at that facility. We are
sure that he educated well over two million people while in Florida.
In 2004 he was retired from performing and paired with
another Seriema in our breeding program.
However, as you can see from the photo, he had not forgotten how to
“slam.” He is pictured with a tree
frog that he found and caught in his enclosure, and of which he seemed very
proud. The morning this photo was
taken he seemed to be showing off his prize to anyone who would pay attention.
Gomez will be missed by all—staff, interns, volunteers and
visitors alike.
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