Limbe Wildlife Centre

Category: endangered species | Date: Dec 30 2007 | By: admin

On 24th November we received a call that approximately 500 African grey parrots had been seized by the Ministry of Forests and Wildlife in Douala International Airport. The parrots were being illegally shipped to Bahrain to enter the exotic pet trade. We were asked if we could take the parrots in as there was nowhere else for them to go.

We do typically receive African grey parrots from time to time but usually in pairs, never in groups of 500 birds! As you can imagine it was pandemonium here when they all arrived, squashed into tiny crates, the live birds standing on top of their dead cage mates. It was a terrible scene.

We had to move quickly to accommodate the birds, converting empty quarantine cages into temporary cages whilst we started work building new flight cages.

All of this occurred at the same time as we were busily preparing the LWC for the arrival of the Taiping Four gorillas, so you can imagine the stress. However this was nothing compared to what was just around the corner, for on the 5th December I received another call to say that a further illegal shipment of birds had been seized at the same airport and they were being sent to us. The same day a truck arrived, again loaded with its sickening cargo of dying parrots. The second shipment contained 727 birds, so in less than 2 weeks we had received 1220 birds.

The way the birds are caught is particularly horrible: hunters seek out fruiting trees in the forest and place sticky gum on the branches of the tree. They then simply have to sit and wait for a flock of parrots to spot the fruiting tree and land on it to feed. As you can imagine the birds, covered in glue, become stuck to the tree. In their desperation to free themselves some birds even chew their own feet off.

Two weeks after the second shipment arrived we managed to finish the construction of two flight cages. This achievement allowed us to move the birds out of their temporary cages in quarantine into their own flight cages.

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 a disease called psittacosis which we think was the cause of many deaths in the first few days. 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.

The plan is to release as many birds as possible. So far several hundred parrots have been released in nearby forested sites. 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.

Typically when we recieve parrots with damaged feathers we anaesthatise them individually to pluck the damaged feathers which speeds up the recovery process. This usually results in healthy feathers re-growing in 3-5 months at which time, assuming the birds are otherwise fit, they can be released. However we have 417 birds needing feather plucking! Currently we do not have the quantities of the aneasthetic required for such a mammoth job, or the man power. If we had nothing else to do, it would take us at least 3 weeks of non stop (everyday) anesthatising and plucking birds to get through them

Once we can get some isoflourane then we can start plucking the birds’ feathers. Then we can release the final 400 odd birds between 3 and 9 months after the plucking begins.

This is a tragic story of wildlife being exploited for the international trade in exotic pets, one of the most lucrative illegal trades in the world. However, due to some diligent work by those responsible for implementing the wildlife laws of Cameroon, at least these birds have been saved. How many other shipments of birds make their way out of the country undetected we can only dread to imagine. The story these parrots, and that of Bolo the new infant gorilla, signal how the forests of Cameroon are being plundered by the unsustainable trade in wild animals. This can not continue.

We desperately need your help to get these injured parrots back into the wild. The following is a list of costs that we need to fund to help the bird’s rehabilitation. Any assistance will be most appreciated.

feeding costs: $2/bird/month = $6000
isoflourane for 417 birds (approx 50 birds per bottle = 9 bottles) = $100/bottle = $900
oxygen 7 tanks @ $90/tank
injectable antibiotics = $200
doxycycline oral for 42d course for 417 birds = $9/day x 42 days = $378
praziquantal (tape worm medicine) = $60
Ivermectine (round worm medicine) = $40
extra keeping staff x 8months = $1000
fuel for release vehicle = $100

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