FACTS on bird rescue, from the people who actual do it.

[northernlights]

http://www.ibrrc.org/index.html

IBRRC In Action: Saving Oiled Wildlife in the Gulf

A team of bird rescue specialists from International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) have been deployed to the Gulf Coast to help with an all-hands-on-deck effort to rescue seabirds caught in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

IBRRC is working with Tri-State Bird Rescue, the lead oiled wildlife organization on the ground, to set up and staff rehabilitation centers in Louisiana, Alabama Mississippi and Florida, where the growing oil slick is expected to impact birds. We now have 16 members of our Oil Spill Response Team working on the Gulf Oil Spill....

: Do you wash birds as soon as you get them?

A: No! Oiled birds often suffer from hypo or hyperthermia. Many haven't eaten in days and are often dehydrated and exhausted by the time we capture them. They must be stabilized before attempting cleaning. Stabilized birds have a much higher survival rate than birds that are not stabilized prior to being washed. A bird can safely be held as much as 5 days before being cleaned.

Q: How long do birds have to stay in captivity?

A: That depends on the health and condition of each animal. Sometimes a bird will have an injury or illness prior to oiling and that will call for an extended stay in captivity. The quickest a bird can be released is usually around 5 days however most average up to 7 days in captivity. Our goal is always to get them in and out as soon as possible to reduce the effects of captivity.

Q: What is the biggest problem in rehabilitating oiled wildlife?

A: There is not just one. Inadequate or no facilities to properly care for the animals has historically been one of the biggest and consistent problems but difficulties can differ from spill to spill. In general, people don't seem to realize that cleaning oiled birds is not just a simple laundry problem. For example, sea birds ingest oil and can suffer from the internal effects of oil, extending their stay in captivity. Young birds require special care and each species has its own diet and caging requirements. This all adds up to a lot of work and coordination that has to be done in a very short amount of time. Many of the problems generated are "people generated". Sometimes the irate public can be obstructive, the media can be intrusive and demanding, and volunteers can have unrealistic expectations and cause many problems. The problems in oil spills are equally people and animal related.

Q: How much does it cost to rehabilitate oiled birds?

A: The cost for wildlife rehabilitation will differ from spill to spill. For example the cost per bird during the "Exxon Valdez" oil spill was extremely high due to the costs per day for the many rescue vessels and the extended period of time we spent in Alaska. The modification of facilities on each spill adds to cost as well. Determining the cost per bird is difficult. It is unrealistic to take the over all cost of the rehabilitation program during a spill and divide it by the amount of birds in a spill to get the cost per bird. This is a common mistake that has been done with many oil spills that gives the impression of very high costs "per bird". You must take all the variables in each situation that effect the cost and separate them out in order to gain an actual amount per bird. There is really no average amount.

Q: What is your survival rate?

A: The survival rate will differ with each oil spill because of all the factors that effect it. Some of those factors are the toxicity of the oil, how rapidly the birds are collected and stabilized, what condition the bird was in before it was oiled, and the species involved. We have had release rates as high as 100% and as low as 25% in the early years. We now average about 50% to 80%. Again, it depends on many variables and cannot be predicted.

Q: Where do you release them?

A: All rehabilitated animals are released in clean and oil free areas chosen by federal and state trustee agency personnel and IBRRC. If the area that they were captured in is still oiled then the animals are sometimes transported to more remote locations for release.

Q: How many of them live after they are released?

A: We don't know. We band all of our released birds with US Fish and Wildlife stainless steel bands. We get some returns on them but most of the birds we release live in remote regions and are never seen again. We have worked with avian specialists to fit rehabilitated birds with transmitters that allowed them to be monitored for a period of time. We plan on doing more post release studies in the future to help us determine the survival rate of oiled birds. See: (Research)

Q: Does IBRRC handle other animals besides birds?

A: Yes. We have treated mammals such as raccoon, beaver, and muskrats and reptiles including snakes and turtles. Most of the animals we care for are seabirds, wading birds and waterfowl. We do not treat large marine mammals as there are other groups who specialize in that area.

[stevedeshazer]

1. That's great information, thanks. n/t

[FSogol]

2. Thanks for posting. n/t

[woo me with science]

3. Thank you for posting.

Do you know the reasons for the discrepancy between these numbers and the dire ones being posted in other threads?

It seems like there is a lot of disagreement about these numbers.

[mopinko]

4. they are not giving you info on released birds.

the threads i have seen are talking about survival after release, something that this does not touch, really.

[woo me with science]

5. That was my fear. :(

:(

[northernlights]

6. a couple reasons

First, the numbers the IBRRC gives are survival while in treatment, not after released. They simply don't know at this point how many survive after release -- they've apparently only recently begun studying that. Tri-State is also doing research to help improve the odds.

Second, a *lot* depends on the experience and expertise brought to bear. IBRRC and Tri-State Rescue have been doing this for a long time, so have garnered a lot of experience.

Probably some similarities to pet birds. Books and articles will state, for example, that zebra finches live 2-8 years in captivity. My zebra finches lived up to 14 years. The father got a tumor when he was about 8 years old -- he had surgery and lived another 6 years in good health. I've had a number of birds defy the numbers. Top notch veterinary care makes a *huge* difference. So does a high quality diet and healthy environment. But the quality of the veterinarian involved is really important. Some are absolutely unbelievable with birds. Others not so much.

[woo me with science]

7. Thanks.

By stressing that these are the "facts" about bird rescue, I thought you were disputing some of the other numbers that were put out as exaggerated. But it sounds like you are saying we just don't know and not to discount what the rescuers may be able to achieve...

which is important to keep in mind...thanks.

[northernlights]

8. Yes. and positive results from Tri-State Rescue

I couldn't get into their website last night to post. Apparently Tri-State and IBRRC are the only wildlife rescue operations in the US equipped to deal with large oil spills. They been doing this work for years, have been doing serious research into it. For example, it is thanks to Tri-State and Dupont cooperative research into the effectiveness of 100 products that Dawn was found to be most effective for cleaning. (And it's also impotant to note that all of their Dawn is donated by the company. Giving credit where it's due.)

http://www.tristatebird.org/research/oil

Pascagoula Pelicans

Tri-State staff and volunteers have been occasionally monitoring pelicans that were rehabilitated and released following the 1995 spill in Pascagoula, MS. The objective is to determine post-release survivability of birds rehabilitated in an oil spill. Visits to the release site were made in April 1997, October 1998, and March 1999. "Our banded birds were seen on all 3 visits.


In conjunction with this field study, an extensive literature review was compiled on band returns and post-release survival of oiled birds. This study was funded in part through a grant from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.


Band Return Study

Tri-State is conducting an on-going study of the release of banded, rehabilitated wild birds and has collected data on band return rates since 1990. Nearly all oiled birds have been banded prior to release, and varying numbers of non-oiled, rehabilitated birds of a number of species have been banded each year. Data on band returns of oiled birds from 1990-2001 has been compiled and portions of the results have been published in the NWRA Wildlife Rehabilitation Bulletin.

Effects of Oil on Seabirds

Following the oil spill in Buzzard's Bay, Massachusetts in April 2003, Tri-State veterinarians worked with veterinarians from the Wildlife Clinic at Tufts University and the EPA to try to learn more about the effects of this oil on seabirds. Blood samples from the live birds and necropsies on deceased birds have revealed some initial information; further diagnostics are pending funding. Data from this research is being shared with the SEANET project.

Cleaning Agents

This was a co-operative study between Tri-State and DuPont Corporation (Experimental Station) in 2000, to determine the most effective agent for removing oil from feathers. Over 100 products were tested, and "Original Dawn Dishwashing Detergent was the most effective of these products. Results were presented at the EOW conference and will be published in the conference proceedings.

[northernlights]

9. kicking for those who want to help -- links to the 2 key bird/wildlife rescues nt