Source: Radio New Zealand
A white-headed petrel doing a water test to check its swimming and water resistance. RNZ / Finn Blackwell
A native bird hospital is concerned about the number of sub-Antarctic seabirds landing sick or hurt in Auckland.
BirdCare Aotearoa is a charity based in West Auckland and works to rehabilitate and care for sick, injured, and orphaned birds.
It recently took in a white-headed petrel found on the West Coast beach of Muriwai with severe internal bleeding late last month.
BirdCare’s fundraising manager Dr Rashi Parker told RNZ it was very unusual to find the petrel so far north.
“When it came into care, it was in, the team call it, a guarded prognosis,” she said. “It had to immediately be put on oxygen and support to regulate its body temperature.
“It needed fluids, it needed vitamin K, because it came with very serious internal bleeding and was severely anemic.”
Parker said BirdCare had seen quite a few birds in a similar situation, describing it as “very unusual”.
“We had three blue petrels, we had two sub-Antarctic fulmars come in, and then we also had soft-plumed petrel,” she said.
“They’re not meant to be around here, they’re very sub-Antarctic birds, so something must be drawing them north.”
A little blue penguin being cared for by BirdCare Aotearoa. RNZ / Finn Blackwell
At the hospital on Monday, specialists were testing the white-headed petrel’s ability to swim, spritzing the bird to check if it would repel the water off its feathers, before potentially releasing it that evening.
It needed to confidently stay afloat for half an hour.
About 17-minutes into the test, however, the feathers on the petrel’s stomach and inner right wing became wet.
“That’s no good, because a bird that can’t be waterproof or if its feathers get wet is basically a bird that can’t swim, and a seabird that can’t swim is a giant drowning risk,” Parker said.
Despite that, they were hopeful for the petrel’s recovery.
“He has been in care for 19 days, so we want to be able to get it out as quickly as possible.”
Parker said they could only speculate on what brought the birds so far north from their habitat.
“Perhaps they’re finding it harder to hunt in the oceans, perhaps there’s not enough food, or fish, or squid from where they’re used to and so they might be coming up north, the oceans are warming up which is changing a whole bunch in terms of their typical exploratory habits.”
This white-headed petrel was found on the West Coast beach of Muriwai with severe internal bleeding late last month. RNZ / Finn Blackwell
It was also possible the birds “hitchhiked” by following lights from cruise ships, Parker said.
What was concerning was the state the deepwater seabirds were found in, she said.
“They’ve all come in with neurological symptoms and signs of internal bleeding.”
Parker said they had another rescue earlier in the year which regurgitated plastic before dying.
“We’ve had a few other Cook’s petrels also, two of them had regurgitated plastic and then carried on,” she said.
“We’ve got a freezer full of these birds that couldn’t make it, and we want to actually investigate what’s going on with their internal organs.”
Parker said the hospital was looking for corporate partners and others to conduct an investigation into the plastic consumed by the birds.
“We really want to see what the rate of plastic ingestion is in seabirds, who are a very vulnerable species, and also kind of determine what is wrong with our oceans that could be hurting these beautiful seabirds,” she said.
Meanwhile, the hospital planned to re-test the white-headed petrel’s swimming and water-resistance, potentially releasing it later in the week.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
