FAUNA RESCUE OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA INC. SUCCESSFUL RELEASE
Each year around ANZAC day, the annual migration of the Short Tailed Shearwaters takes place Thousands of these birds fly from the Great Australian Bight past South Australia and follow the coast around Victoria and then along the eastern seaboard of Australia right on through to the northern hemisphere. It is one hell of a long way. Usually ANZAC Day is a wet and windy time and frequently we get a lot of rescued shearwaters who are blown off course and finish up being stranded in the suburbs of Adelaide . This year the weather was really mild so we were surprised that one shearwater did get lost and needed some help. We try to get these fellows straight back into the air and on their way again as soon as possible. Although they normally eat krill , it was force fed a few small whitebait about 4 times per day, to keep up its condition. Unfortunately some of our planning came unstuck when the captain of a boat heading to Tasmania refused to agree to release the bird after going past Kangaroo Island. On the very next day we released the bird from the top of the lookout at Port Elliott. The only other option was to euthanase the bird because if we had released it elsewhere , it would surely have died. Apparently thousands of these birds die each year through misadventure. They are also killed for their oil on islands off the coast of Tasmania. |
