Back in December 2007 we rescued 1220 African grey parrots of which approximately 700 birds were released within a few weeks of their arrival at the LWC.  The remainder of the parrots had damaged feathers, from the glue that was used to catch them or from being purposefully cut by the hunters.  Each of these injured parrots had their plumage treated back in January 2008, with the help of a veterinary team from the World Parrot Trust, and have been recuperating ever since.  Now, four months later, some of these parrots have shown through their ability to fly strongly in the flight cage that their plumage has recovered and so it is time to begin the final release phase.  

 However the program will be different from the previous releases, as, rather than taking the selected birds to a nearby forest to be set free, we have decided to simply open up their flight cage here at the LWC and allow them to fly off in their own time. 

PHOTO: ROOF OF FLIGHT CAGE IS PEELED BACK TO ENABLE PARROTS TO FLY FREE AT THEIR WILL 

The decision to opt for this LWC-based ‘soft-release’ strategy was taken after we saw how well a few parrots who had escaped from the flight cage were doing living free amongst the trees of the wildlife centre.  So the plan is to simply start adding birds to this ‘escaped’ flock and to continue to provision them with food and water so that they can regain their strength and fitness steadily.  The forests surrounding the town of Limbe are only a short distance away so when the birds are ready we hope that they will simply fly off together.  Flocks of up to 40 African grey parrots are regularly seen flying around the capital city of Yaoundé so living in the small town of Limbe should not be a problem for the greys. Today, Sunday 18^th May, the roof of one of the flight cages was peeled back and the first batch of 12 recovered parrots were freed. 

PHOTO: parrots flying free from cage

So far they are doing well and have joined the ‘escaped’ flock that is resident at the LWC.  The sight of a flock of parrots flying strongly through the trees of the LWC is a truly wonderful sight, all the more so when one considers the absolutely appalling conditions in which they arrived in 6 months ago.   

PHOTO:  Parrot flying at speed!

PHOTO: newly released parrots flying high into a tree in the Limbe Botanic Gardens

A special thank you to the World Parrot Trust, Pro-Widlife, the Born Free Foundation, the Animal Divulgation Trust and the Humane Society for all their support with the parrot rehabilitation.  The process is still ongoing and we have a while before we can say that we are parrot free, but we certainly would not be where we are today without this support.  Thank you.

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The situation with the African grey parrots is becoming critical. Having placed the two seized groups in two rapidly constructed flight cages and having released all those birds that were healthy and had undamaged feathers we felt that we had managed to stabilise the situation. However after a period of about a week when the death rate of birds fell to almost zero we began to find the death rate creeping up again with two or three birds dying each day. The post-mortem findings of all of these birds were consistent with the disease pisttacosis, suggesting that the doxycycline treatment that we had been painstakingly giving in the water was not reaching effective concentrations in the birds. In contrast, the acutely sick birds that we had been treating with our limited stock of injectable doxycycline were all recovering well. Clearly the in-water method is not working. So we have now started to make a mash that we can feed to the parrots and in which we can place the doxycycline. Currently we are trying to encourage the birds to eat the mash, which is not easy as wild parrots are pretty picky eaters, but we expect that after a few days they will begin to eat the mash and we can begin giving the doxycycline this way. Medicating in the feed will, it is hoped, enable sufficient concentrations of doxycycline to be reached in the blood.

The situation is not all doom and gloom though as, on the 6th and 7th of January, we selected 59 birds, that were previously too thin to be released but who had since put on weight and were now strong flyers, for release.

During the pre-release clinical examination of each bird it was noted that all of the birds, including those with damaged feathers that could not be selected for release, had put on considerable weight since they had arrived at the LWC. This is a good indication that the quantity of food that we have been feeding is supporting the large numbers of parrots and is enabling them to gain weight steadily. Considering the emaciated state that many of these birds were in when they arrived it is encouraging to find that they are now looking much healthier and stronger.

Most of the remaining birds will not be candidates for release, despite having gained weight, until their feathers have recovered and so we are now planning to begin the laborious feather plucking process to speed up the feather recovery.

Thank you all for your kind donations for this ongoing saga. Particular thanks to Theresa Siskind who has kindly made a monthly donation for the parrots. This is extremely kind of you. All of your funds have helped us to purchase medications and food and to construct the flight cages. We are currently spending $200US per week on food alone for the birds so please do continue to assist us with your kind support.

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