Mega-Agriculture and Wildlife Health
At the 2011 IWRC Symposium the Keynote Speaker was Dr Greg Harrison. He gave a fabulous talk about mega-agriculture and its far reaching effects, yes, even into wildlife rehabilitation. We are pleased to provide a full copy of his speech here! I highly recommend listening to the full hour below, but you can also access a short 5 minute introduction at the Harrison’s Pet Food YouTube Page.
Enjoy!
Kai
Home by the Holidays
Update January 10 2012: The puffin has been released in the Grand Banks region near other puffins.
A rehab center just outside of Montreal has been in the news recently, due to an unusual visitor, an immature Atlantic puffin a long way from home.
Sue Wylie, IWRC board member, instructor, and executive director of Le Nichoir, and her volunteers set up a habitat for the juvenille puffin in a bath tub.
The set up included a mesh pull out. A good place for the bird to get out of the water while protecting his feet. Photo: Lindsay D'Aoust
The puffin was fed a diet of smelt, a fish species that wouldn't cause problems with the bird's waterproofing. Photo: Lindsay D'Aoust
After a week of phone calls, Sue had set up a flight to Newfoundland for the puffin via AirCanada. Photo: Lindsay D'Aoust
Early December 22nd the bird was on a commercial flight, with a Newfoundland rehabilitator waiting on the other side. Photo: Lindsay D'Aoust
Kakapo Ambassador
Many rehabilitators deal with species that are not endangered, or at least still have a number of living members. But regardless of whether we rehab red squirrels or hyacinth macaws, we feel the specter of population loss. While not truly a rehab case, the below article is an interesting account of one member of one species with only 129 members. It highlights the important role we rehabilitators play in the protection and healing of threatened and endangered species. – Kai
By Barbara Heidenreich
Austin, Nov 30, 2011 – Sirocco is one of 129 Kakapo left in the world. This large, flightless, nocturnal species of parrot is famous for unusual behavior. During breeding season the males plant themselves in small depressions in the ground called “bowls”. They puff up with air and emit a resonant boom for up to eight hours a night. The boom attracts a female who is eagerly pounced upon by the hormonally charged male Kakapo. Sirocco, having been hand raised due to an illness, prefers to mate with human heads instead of female Kakapo.
Sirocco became famous when he directed his affections to the cranium of zoologist Mark Carwardine in the BBC series Last Chance to See. The viral video clip has been viewed more than 3.5 million times on YouTube http://youtu.be/9T1vfsHYiKY . Professional animal trainer Barbara Heidenreich was one of those viewers and reached out to the Kakapo Recovery Program to see if she could help.
Barbara commented on the situation. “I was amused by the clip like everyone else. However I came to learn that his sexual behavior had become a bit of a problem. Sirocco was at times quite relentless in his attempts to climb to people’s heads. There was concern he might get hurt by someone who was not charmed by his advances.”
Barbara traveled 7400 miles from the United States to New Zealand to work with Sirocco’s caregivers to develop a training plan based in positive reinforcement. The main goal was to teach Sirocco to redirect his sexual behavior towards something else. “We experimented with a stuffed owl. But will likely end up using one of his known favorite objects, a Crocs™ shoe.” says Barbara.
Barbara and Sirocco
Sirocco has responded extremely well to training. He has already learned to present a number of behaviors that make it easier to care for him, including touching his beak to the end of a plastic chopstick. The chopstick allows caregivers to direct him where to go without handling. He is learning other behaviors as well. Many are based on Kakapo natural behavior. As ambassador for the Kakapo Recovery Program, Sirocco makes appearances to help educate people about his kind. By sharing his natural talents the team hopes to raise funding and awareness for this extremely endangered New Zealand parrot. Learn more at www.KakapoRecovery.org.nz.
About Good Bird Inc:
Good Bird Inc provides behavior and training products for the companion parrot community. These products include Good Bird Magazine, books, videos and parrot training workshops. Discover kind and gentle ways to train parrots to be well behaved, interactive and fun. Visit www.GoodBirdInc.com for more information.
The Gulls Runneth Over
By Susan Wylie
In early June, Le Nichoir, a wild bird rehabilitation center in Hudson,
Quebec received 240 nestling and fledgling ring-billed gulls and 1 herring
gull chick after the birds fell off the roofs of some industrial buildings
in Montreal. Unfortunately this is becoming a common issue in the area with
gulls nesting in inappropriate areas such as on flat roofed, industrial
buildings. These initially offer the adults an apparently great nesting site
with few predators to harass their chicks. Unfortunately, there are other
problems that can result in high levels of chick mortality. After many
attempts at encouraging building owners to return the gulls on the roof and
not intervene, the birds were brought to Le Nichoir for care.
A strategic plan was instantly put into place, volunteers were recruited,
new caging was purchased, large amount of fish were bought (primary source
of diet) and a large aviary was built to ensure that the birds had the
appropriate housing and the best of care.
Overall, of the 240 intakes, 225 healthy and viable ring-billed gulls and 1 herring
gull were released after 6 weeks of care. Le Nichoir worked closely with the
scientific community including biologists from the University of Quebec in Montreal to
have all the birds banded with both metal and identification bands and given
a physical examination. All this was overseen by the Environment Canada
enforcement division, biologists and permit officers to ensure that the
appropriate protocols were taken. Since then there have been multiple
sightings of the gulls, who have seem to have adapted well, including one
recently seen in Florida!
