Animal Connections Reservations Center: Meet Padre the Spoonbill!

Padre the Roseate Spoonbill

During your next visit to SeaWorld San Antonio, you may notice some new faces at the front of the park.  The former Clydesdale Hamlet is now the Animal Connections: Reservation Center.  This is a great place to start your day.  Here you can visit the Concierge Team for information about tours, interaction programs, camps, and other animal connections.  They can assist you with pass upgrades, cabanas, and dining programs.  Or, if you're new to the park and you just need some advice on how to navigate around and maximize your visit, they can help you plan your day.

This is also a great place to see a few of our Animal Ambassadors who also happen to be native Texans.  Each of the animals you will meet here, (right now you can visit with a Roseate spoonbill, American alligators, and brown pelicans), are considered successes stories. This is because the populations of all three of these species were once critically threatened, but because of conservation efforts and responsible wildlife management, they have come “back from the brink” and their numbers are once again stable.

This week, I would like to introduce you to one of these animals, Padre the Roseate spoonbill.   Padre hatched here at SeaWorld San Antonio on July 16, 2005, but if you have travelled to the Texas Gulf Coast, you may have seen spoonbills like Padre in the marshy and grassy areas near the water.  They are also found in other coastal areas in the southern United States, the West Indies, Central America, and South America.

Spoonbills are one of 14 species of long legged wading birds. Much like flamingos, their feathers are pink as a result of the food that they eat.   Like many other bird species with beautiful plumage, Roseate spoonbills were hunted almost to extinction during the 1800s. Their striking pink feathers were popular on women's hats, and hunters from all over the United States competed for spoonbill plumes.  In the early 1900s, roseate spoonbills began to re-colonize areas along the Gulf Coast and slowly increase in number.

Their bill is long and flat, a special adaptation for tactile feeding.  They swish their spoon-shaped bills back and forth in the water to find small invertebrates, fish, and crustaceans.

Padre swishes his bill back and forth to collect food from the water.

Spoonbills also make good parents.  During breeding season, the male gives the female gifts of nesting material to attract them.  Once mated, the pair remains monogamous.  Both male and female take turns sitting on the eggs and feeding the young.

You can see Padre here at SeaWorld, but as an Animal Ambassador he also has made several appearances on television shows, schools, and children's hospitals.  Throughout the day, he will assist with conservation talks and guest meet and greets in the park. This summer the SeaWorld Adventure Campers will assist with training Padre to fly to guests so that they will have an opportunity to get an even closer look at this amazing, although unusual, bird. Don't forget to come out and say hello to Padre the next time you're in the park!