ASHEBORO N.C. – The North Carolina Zoo is planning to say farewell to its flock of Flamingos who are leaving for South Carolina at the end of September.
The North Carolina Zoo announced yesterday that they will be transferring their flock of 15 Chilean flamingos to the Greenville Zoo in South Carolina sometime at the end of September.
“While it is sad to see the flamingos leave the Zoo, we are happy to know they will join a flock of 19 Chilean flamingos already at the Greenville Zoo,” said the Zoo on Facebook. “Flamingos are social birds that live in large flocks in the wild. We are very thankful to the Greenville Zoo for accepting the entire flock, as several of these birds have been together for over 25 years.”
On Saturday, August 26th from 10am to 4pm the zoo will be hosting a “Farewell Flamingos” event at the Flamingo habitat, located in front of the entrance to the Aviary just inside Africa.
A variety of pink snacks will be available for purchase and the Zoo encourages guests to wear pink this Saturday. Zoo admission or membership is required to access the event.
The move is part of the Zoo’s plans to demolish the Aviary which was permanently closed to the public in April of 2022.
REI Engineers has been hired for the demolition which is currently scheduled for some time in late September of this year. The Zoo is planning to rebuild the Aviary and the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources’ budget includes $60 million dollars marked for “Zoo Aviary replacement,” but that budget hasn’t passed yet.
We attempted to reach out to the Zoo to find out what the last day the Flamingos will be in their habitat and if they will be coming back with the new aviary but have been unable to reach anyone as of the time this article was published.