By Sam Williams – reposted with author permission from Word Parrot Trust A few Mondays ago we got a call that another parrot had bounced off a car. Normally we’d expect a parakeet, a broken wing or both but this call came from Jim and Jane who sponsor Echo so it was definitely going to be a parrot. Sam headed over but was still in for a surprise. It was an unweaned parrot chick who had had a lucky escape, he was knocked about but otherwise ok. Except he had lost his parents. The story has a happy ending so...
Di Conger
We all have that one instance or person who got us involved in wildlife rehabilitation. Let’s take a moment today to celebrate them; whether it was a person, a situation, or a single warbler. For Karen, that person was Di Conger. The rehab community is saddened by Di’s recent death. Let us remember all of the animals who went back into the wild due to Di’s care, and all of the people she influenced in her life. Di did not want an obituary, so instead Karen has offered to share her story of jumping into rehab. Update 8/21/12: A memorial...
Scenes from Hai Bar Yotvata
By Karen Tannenbaum Karen is a California rehabilitator who usually volunteers at the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center in the US but is spending the summer as a volunteer at an Israeli wildlife rehabilitation and education center, Hai Bar Yotvata. Since IWRC currently has no Israeli members (hopefully we will soon) I thought the membership would be interested in the current state of rehabilitation in the country. Regardless of where we are, we always regard our animals and practices as normal, be that kangaroos and possums, raccoons and redtails, or pandas and cincerous vultures. By sharing each others “normal” we...
Promising treatment of avipoxvirus infections
Here is an interesting paper for those of you dealing with avian patients. The study was presented at the 2011 Conference of the European Association of Avian Veterinarians. * * * * * A clinical trial of 162 captive birds of prey with poxvirus took place between 2008 and 2010. The Poxvirus infection was diagnosed by histopathology and PCR procedure. Booster Concentrate® was administered orally in the food daily for 30-65 days. All the birds recovered from the infection uneventfully within 15-65. Clinical followup a year later shows new poxvirus cases continue to respond to Booster Concentrate. * * ...
Desert Habitats
By Karen Tannenbaum 6/6 These last few working days I learned more about the Common Tortoise breeding/rehabilitation program, one of the Hai Bar’s most successful projects. My responsibilities now include maintaining enclosures for the youngest tortoises on the reserve, one of the red foxes, raptors in recovery cages, a few recovering small mammals, the nightjars, and (of course) the fruit bats. I worked on setting up a new, larger enclosure for the nightjars as well as a new enclosure for recovering raptors. I was allowed complete creative license to arrange the cages and fit them with new branches that I...
It’s Time to Get the Lead Out for Wildlife
Guest Blog Post from Jeff Miller, Center for Biological Diversity Have you ever held an eagle or loon that’s been poisoned by lead? It’s heart-breaking to see these majestic birds wracked by toxins that sicken and often kill. Veterinarians and wildlife rehab centers have been on the front lines for years coping with countless wildlife lead poisoning cases around the country. It’s a needless epidemic: millions of birds are poisoned every year by eating spent lead shot, fragments of lead hunting ammunition or fishing tackle left in the wild. (Lead also endangers the health of people who eat game meat...
Bye Bye Buzzard
By Karen Tannenbaum Karen is a California rehabilitator who usually volunteers at the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center in the US but is spending the summer as a volunteer at an Israeli wildlife rehabilitation and education center, Hai Bar Yotvata. Since IWRC currently has no Israeli members (hopefully we will soon) I thought the membership would be interested in the current state of rehabilitation in the country. Regardless of where we are, we always regard our animals and practices as normal, be that kangaroos and possums, raccoons and redtails, or pandas and cincerous vultures. By sharing each others “normal” we...
An American in Israel
By Karen Tannenbaum Karen is a California rehabilitator who usually volunteers at the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center in the US but is spending the summer as a volunteer at an Israeli wildlife rehabilitation and education center, Hai Bar Yotvata. Since IWRC currently has no Israeli members (hopefully we will soon) I thought the membership would be interested in the current state of rehabilitation in the country. Regardless of where we are, we always regard our animals and practices as normal, be that kangaroos and possums, raccoons and redtails, or pandas and cincerous vultures. By sharing each others “normal”...
Bringing Science and Collaboration into Wildlife Health Management
National Wildlife Health Center Strategic Science Plan http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/information_desk/NWHC%20Strategic%20Science%20Plan.pdf By Kristin Madden, IWRC instructor and Chair of The Wildlife Society’s Wildlife Disease Working Group subcommittee to review the NWHC Plan In February 2012, a subcommittee of The Wildlife Society’s Wildlife Disease Working Group was formed to review and comment on the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center’s (NWHC) “Science Strategy: Advancing Wildlife and Ecosystem Health for the Next Decade.” The NWHC Strategic Science Plan is a broad document with three major goals: developing local, regional and international partnerships; creating information support systems; and identifying wildlife health threats. Each of...
Up For Discussion – Nonnative Species
Up For Discussion The upcoming issue of JWR will feature a Letter to the Editor questioning the ethics of treating and releasing non-native, invasive species. In this particular case, the species in question is Virginia opossums in California (introduced in 1910, according to Jameson & Peeters (California Mammals, University of California Press, 1988)). But rehabilitators across the U.S. are familiar with the dilemma of caring for European starlings and English (house) sparrows. And this concern is not limited to North America. In Australia the problem may be European rabbits, red foxes, and cane toads. Africa’s invasive species include the...