THE ROYAL FACTS
?RICKY? THE ROYAL PENGUIN, Edudyptes schlegeli - ANOTHER FIRST FOR NEW SOUTH
WALES
Exciting news for SOSSA and all interested birder?s. This wonderful bird came
ashore in
a critical condition at Pretty Beach Bateman?s Bay on Wednesday the 10th
December 97.
It was rescued by Christina Allen (WIRES) who contacted us here at SOSSA HQ,
for advise
and to arrange transport to HQ. Lindsay Smith and Peter Andrea drove down to
Nowra to
meet Chris Miller (WIRES) at 8.00 am on December 11th 97, to bring the bird
back for
further assessment.
Within an hour of the boys driving down to collect this great bird, the phone
calls were
constant. We contacted Libby Hall at Taronga Zoo Sydney), to see if their
specialists
at the NRMA Clinic would be interested in assisting the rehabilitation of this
penguin.
Libby was so excited she would have crawled though the telephone if possible.
Libby
arranged for Dallas of the Native Animal Network Ambulance (NANA) to drive down
at 7.30
pm to us here at Wollongong and do the shuffle to the zoo. (We believe Ricky
will be
getting the ROYAL SPOIL from Libby).
Our SOSSA veterinarian Mike Cannon (Wollongong), made a special trip over to HQ
to
assess the condition of ?Ricky? the Royal penguin. After assessing that the
bird was
dehydrated and extremely down on weight. An urgent call to his surgery
provided us with
the necessary medicines to assist in recovery. A quick trip to the surgery and
Lindsay
returned with Hartmans solution for the dehydration and Poly-Aid a protein mix
to give
Ricky a quick upper. The good news is that after 8 hours of constant
monitoring and
lots of TLC, Ricky seemed to be much brighter and responding well to the
treatment.
Lots of phone calls to interested people including Tony Palliser, brought many
visitors,
including Chris Brandis.
The local newspaper the Illawarra Mercury photographed him for a story, to
appear in the
newspaper today December 12th. Last night the local WIN TV. News ran a story
about the
discovery of this unusual visitor. This created many more phone calls and
visitors.
Ricky is extremely low on condition, weighing in at only 2.9 Kilos, his weight
should be
between 4 - 4.5 kilo. His age can only be estimated at over 2 years. The
journalist
from the Illawarra Mercury (Wollongong), asked the question, ?what made him
come here??.
Lindsay said, ?I asked the very same question, but was unable to understand
Ricky?s
answer?!.
MERRY CHRISTAMS TO ALL
Janice & Lindsay
--
SOSSA "Wildlife Research" H.Q - Wollongong
Southern Oceans Seabird Study Association Inc
Lindsay E. Smith & Janice G. Jenkin-Smith
Janice G. Jenkin.JP.,CMC. Civil Marriage Celebrant
P.O. Box 142, Unanderra NSW Australia 2526
Phone +61 (02) 4271 6004
Fax +61 (02) 4272 4626
Mobile 0418 603 007
Email:
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