I got an update on the Brown Booby from Jen today (along with the photos accompanying this post).
She said:
She [the Brown Booby] is actually doing really well. We have her in an open area in ICU and she has branches to perch on. She is eating a lot of herring and stinking up the joint! She gave me a nice bite on the arm that made an amazing bruise! I am thinking that she will need to get sent to a rehab place in California and that is going to cost some money. We may need to ask for help on this one!
I am sending a couple more photos in case you want to write an update. BTW, this is an amazing bird, so much fun to watch her eat and just see her behaviors. Very cool!
If you’re able to help the Raptor Center out, I’m sure they would appreciate the support. They do some amazing work rehabilitating birds (not just raptors!) that are found weak or injured both locally and from elsewhere in Southeast Alaska. On their website they have a donate page as well as a gift shop.
Thanks to Jen for the update!
Do we know why this bird was in distress? Or did the rescuers find a tired bird dying of old age and spend thousands on it. It is estimated that as many up to 7.7 percent of the 200,000 worldwide population (that’s 15,400 individual birds) dies each year. That is 42 per dying.
Reference… http://genomics.senescence.info/species/entry.php?species=Sula_leucogaster
Scott – thanks for the comment. I can’t tell you why the bird was in distress, everything I know has been included in the two blog posts I’ve made so far. As the first one said, the bird landed on a fishing boat and did not leave, so when the boat came in to town, they asked the folks at the raptor center here in Sitka to come get it (a five minute drive to the harbor). This is not an unusual occurrence here, the raptor center takes in many sick and/or injured birds, not just raptors. In some cases there is little that can be done for them, and they are euthanized, but in this case it sounds like the bird (so far) is responding well to treatment. I can’t speak to the marginal cost of treating this particular bird, but my guess is that it’s not too much (the raptor center is already well equipped to care for fish-eating birds).
Of course this only addresses the issue of this particular bird, but your question speaks to the bigger question of why bother with wild animal rehabilitation at all? I have lots of thoughts about this, but it seems like too big of a question to try and explore thoroughly in a comment on a blog post. I’ll just leave it at this: for me I think it can be worth the effort because it helps us connect better with nature, and the ripple-effects of that connection can result in much more significant positive effects than just saving (or just prolonging, really) the life of a single bird.
Well put Matt.!
I sit here in the UK reading and thinking about the Brown Booby. That’s one hell of a ripple effect for a bird and the people who worry and care about nature !!
Has anybody asked Alaska Airlines if they might take the Booby? I’m not sure where the rehab center is, but they do fly a lot of places down there and might donate the flight.