Refugee Penguins Recovering
C A P E T O W N, South Africa, July 6 -- — Scrubbed shining clean, 60 penguins basked under infrared lights drying out their soaked feathers.
Despite having been coated with oil, dragged from their burrows,shoved in boxes and transported to a rehabilitation center forcleaning, the birds were given a clean bill of health byveterinarians Wednesday.
Birds with Endurance“This is one tough animal,” said Martin Lavoie, a Canadianveterinarian overseeing 20 volunteers washing birds in a giantwarehouse in the Cape Town suburb of Salt River. “So far we havehad no mortalities from washing.”
The cleaned birds are just a fraction of those hit by an oilleak from a tanker that sank near the coast of Cape Town on June23, causing one of South Africa’s worst environmental disasters.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare says 44 percent of theworld’s population of African penguins — estimated at between150,000 and 180,000 — has been placed at risk by the spill.
The penguin population will take at least five years to recover,said Tony Williams of the Western Cape Nature Conservation.
About 20,000 oily penguins have been captured so far and sent totreatment centers for cleaning and care. Each bird takes up to anhour to clean.
“Washing is murderous,” said volunteer John Forsyth, as hetook a breather Wednesday. “A penguin is quite a difficult thingto work with.”
Atypical BathThe birds are washed in warm water with low-concentratedetergent. One volunteer holds the bird down while another scrubsits body with gloved hands and uses a toothbrush to clean its head.
The birds are then rinsed twice, toweled off, fed an electrolytesolution, given a vitamin injection and placed under infrared lampsto dry. The birds are vulnerable to hypothermia because theirplumage loses its waterproofing when it comes into contact with theoil.
Many of the birds are weak and their strength has to be builtup, often over weeks, before they can withstand being washed. Oncecleaned, it takes the birds up to three weeks before their plumageis waterproof again and they can be released.
