Joe the kea has new round of fame
Since his recent appearance on Jeremy Wells’ Birdland show on TV One, the Junction Hotel’s pet kea has been having a few more visitors than usual.
Joe has been a resident at the hotel for 43 years now, and is well known for entertaining patrons with his antics in and outside the bar. He is now the oldest-known kea still kept in captivity in the country. Joe has known no other life and is always more than happy to return to his safe cyclone-netted enclosure at the back of the pub, where he stays most of the time, out of the limelight.
Joe was brought to the Junction when he was just a fluffy chick after being found abandoned up the Cobb by two hunters. They felt sorry for him and brought him back with them for a drink at the hotel, where he was instantly adopted by publican Nola Drummond.
“At first I tempted him with the choicest morsels from the dining room, tapping him on the beak before every mouthful to get him to feed, but it didn’t take long for Joe to become acquainted to pub life. Now he enjoys a varied diet, starting off with a raw egg every morning.”
Kea are the only alpine parrot species in the world, with estimates of the wild population ranging up to 5,000 individuals. The highly intelligent birds reach maturity at three years, though the latest research shows that only 37 per cent of wild birds survive beyond their first year. Few wild birds can be found that are older than 20 years, though in captivity they have been known to live quite easily until 50. Around 88 kea are currently held in 30 captive facilities around the country, down from 102 in 2002, due to an aging population and the difficulty of getting new permits to hold the birds under DOC’s Captive Management Plan, instituted in 2002. Only 16 kea nationwide are still held by private holders like the Junction Hotel, and the rest are in public institutions such as zoos and wildlife parks.
A few days after Joe appeared on television, Nola received a formal letter from DOC to say she should refrain from feeding her kea any chocolate, which apparently recent tests have shown does not agree with the birds.
Nola says DOC got it wrong. “It was actually peanuts the pub patrons were feeding him when he got filmed. Joe is like any of our customers; he likes a bit of this and a bit of that. What doesn’t agree with him he just uses his beak to flick it up in the air like it’s a great big joke. Joe may well outlive all of us around here.”
Gerard Hindmarsh
