Ms. Haase, Angela Merkel visited the Marlow Bird Park on Thursday on a farewell tour through her constituency in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

You are the park's spokesperson.

Was it planned that the Chancellor would get so close to the birds?

Sebastian Eder

Editor in the Society department at FAZ.NET.

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No, it wasn't planned.

But she had already been with us twice before, the first time in 2012, when she also fed the Loris.

They are Australian parrots.

At that time we invited Ms. Merkel because our park is in her constituency.

In 2015 she came back to officially open the penguin facility.

Last year we invited her again to open our new Lori facility.

But that was canceled because of Corona.

Now she had reported herself that she wanted to come by again to say goodbye before the general election.

How did the visit go?

She arrived at 3:30 p.m., then we walked through the park with her.

We had a major snow disaster here in 2018, as a result of which we rebuilt and beautified many facilities - including the Lori facility.

But first we went to see the budgies with Ms. Merkel.

She fed them millet out of her hand, she had no fear of contact.

The birds are used to being fed by visitors, that's part of the park's concept.

You buy the feed at the entrance and then you can feed the birds.

It was good on Thursday that the weather was so bad.

So there weren't many visitors and the birds were really hungry.

They get food from us in the morning, they are not fed until the late afternoon.

And after the budgies it went to the Loris?

No, we met another colleague with an eagle owl.

He had placed himself on the way.

He does flight shows, after which visitors can take the eagle owl on their fists.

But Ms. Merkel didn't want that.

Georg Günther, her possible successor as a direct candidate, has taken on this.

Ms. Merkel preferred to look at the eagle owl from a distance.

And then we went in to the Loris.

They landed directly on everyone who had a potty of lori porridge made from dried pollen, fructose, grain and water in their hands.

We also gave Mrs. Merkel a potty.

Did the Loris also come to her directly?

Yes immediately.

And they had eaten the lori porridge very quickly. 

What do the lories do when there is no more food?

They either fly away or they bite.

But the Chancellor wasn't bitten?

Yes, she was bitten.

That's why she screams in one of the photos.

The Loris often do that with visitors, following the motto: Why is the food empty now?

But the mood was still great.

The photographers said that they had never gotten so close to Ms. Merkel.

A Lori sat on her head, the birds like to do that.

This gives you a good view of the feed.

Most of the birds flew away when the food was empty.

I took one or two Loris from Ms. Merkel, they were a little more persistent.

And then the birds fluttered and Ms. Merkel said goodbye.

She said she would come back privately.