Calgary Zoo bids adieu to born-and-raised peacock: ‘Saying goodbye is never easy’

The Wilder Institute Calgary Zoo is saying goodbye to a lifetime resident.

Norman, the zoo’s geriatric peacock, was compassionately euthanized earlier in February “as he was no longer responding to these treatments,” the zoo said.

“At 17, Norman was considered geriatric for his species. He had been receiving supportive care and treatment for advanced degenerative changes in his spine and legs,” the zoo wrote Thursday afternoon.

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The peacock was hatched from an egg at the Calgary Zoo in the spring of 2006, and the free-roaming peacock was known to frequent the green spaces around the Chilean flamingo habitat and gorilla amphitheatre with his purple legband.

“Saying goodbye is never easy, especially when it’s to those who have grown old with us,” the zoo wrote. “Norman was loved by many and will be dearly missed.”