“Where have all the beautiful birds gone?” A grandmother wonders out loud as she walks with her grandson past the aviary at De Hout city farm in Alkmaar. The truth may not be too pleasant for little ears. In recent months, rats have killed no fewer than 25 birds. The employees of the city farm are sick of it.
It was already known that mice sometimes literally take a grain of bread in the aviary. The rodent has also been given a place on the information boards where the ornamental birds are described. The small rodents do little harm, but the rat is different. Rats have an all-encompassing menu that includes birds, seeds, snails, frogs and eggs.
The aviary in the park will be completely replaced and made rat-proof in the future, but that will be too late for dozens of ornamental birds. “We discovered that the rats have gnawed their way in,” says Kim Wiersma of Stadswerk072, the municipal organization that manages the petting zoo. “Unfortunately, they have wreaked havoc in recent months.”
To prevent more misery, the golden pheasants have now found a safe home in the chicken coop of the petting zoo. The other survivors now fly into a part of the aviary where the rat cannot gnaw its way in thanks to a stone surface. “It scares me a bit, all those empty cages,” says a visitor. “I hope the birds come back soon.”
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To solve the rat problem, bait boxes have been placed in the aviaries by a company that specializes in pest control. When NH calls the company to ask how it works, we are referred to Stadswerk072 in connection with the customer’s privacy.
“The rats are caught with mechanical traps,” says Kim Wiersma of Stadswerk072. “Traps with poison have also been placed in places where this is not dangerous to other animals.” The intention is that the new cages will be filled with ornamental birds again in the future.
The volunteers and the manager of the petting zoo are quite upset by the dead birds. “It is very sad and sad. We take care of the birds every day with a lot of love and when we find dead birds, it really touches our hearts.”