Current Projects

Update from the Limbe Wildlife Centre regarding the rehabilitation of African Grey parrots

December 23rd, 2007

Construction of a second flight cage
Finally we have managed to finish the construction of the second flight cage. This achievement allowed us (on Thursday 20th) to move the birds from the second group of parrots (seized on 5th December) out of the chimpanzee night house, and into their own flight cage. The chimpanzees that were living in the night house were pleased by this development as it meant that they could now use all the rooms of their enclosure again and not just 3, plus they could get some sleep away from the continuous squawking of parrots.

Counting the birds
Moving the parrots to the second flight cage gave us the opportunity finally to count the birds and we were not surprised to find that the total number of birds in the second seizure was far higher than the estimated 500. In total there were 727 parrots removed from the 8 small wooden boxes that were bound for Mexico and beyond. This meant that in a period of 10 days the Limbe Wildlife Centre had received a total of 1220 African grey parrots!

From Apes to Parrots
Slowly, we are developing a system of how to care for such a large number of birds, with keeping staff becoming well practised at their new responsibilities. It is a testament to our staff how well they have coped with these unusual circumstances and how well they have managed to adapt from keeping apes to keeping birds.

We are pleased that the daily number of dead birds is dropping from the high numbers experienced in the first few days after their arrival, to nearly zero. All of the birds are on a long term course of doxycycline as a treatment for psittacosis which we think was the cause of many of the early deaths. As we can only buy this drug in 100mg capsules here our veterinary staff have to spend a few hours each day breaking apart hundreds of small capsules and pouring the antibiotic powder into a pile ready to be mixed into the drinking water. This is a daily treatment for the birds, and they will all be on it for 42 days, and so you can imagine how many hours of capsule breaking this is going to lead to! This is just one example of how all of our lives have changed since the arrival of the parrots.

Release and caring of ailing parrots
The release program has now come to a halt, with the final group of releasable birds being freed successfully on Thursday 20th. This brings the total of released birds to 681. The remaining birds have all got glue on their feathers or cut wing feathers or are sick, and these birds will be with us for many months before they can be released. We are now trying to raise funds to help cover the care costs of their protracted rehabilitation process. For example we will need to buy many bottles of anaesthetic that will allow us to start the painstaking process of anesthatising each and every one of the remaining 417 parrots so that their damaged feathers can be removed, a process which will encourage new feather growth and a more rapid recover and release.

Thank you for all your continued support with the funding of this extraordinary rehabilitation process.

Felix Lankester MSc MRCVS
Project Manager

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