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Science

Wildlife rehab center uses clever costume to teach orphaned crane how to drink from a pond

Things we might assume are instinctual sometimes have to be taught.

Photos courtesy of FreeMe Wildlife/Facebook

FreeMe Wildlife worker Siya mimics an adult wattled crane to train a youngster.

When a baby animal is abandoned or orphaned in the wild, chances are good it's not going to survive without some kind of outside assistance. That's where wildlife rescues and rehabilitation centers come in to provide the safety and care a wee one needs to no only survive but learn to thrive.

That learning doesn't always come naturally, though. We might assume that animal instincts are enough for wildlife to know how to do basic survival tasks, but often they're not. Babies learn from their mothers how to eat and drink and other things they need to know how to do stay alive, and when the mom isn't there, humans have to fill in.

However, humans filling the mom role is problematic in its own right. Baby wildlife can imprint on human caregivers, seeing them as their mothers, which can interfere with their instincts and be dangerous for the animal. Ideally, helpful humans find ways to demonstrate necessary behaviors without creating too much of an attachment so that the animal can eventually thrive in the wild or at least with its own kind.

That's the idea behind a clever costume a worker at FreeMe Wildlife Midlands Centre in South Africa wore to teach a wattled crane chick how to drink from a pond. Watch:

The critically endangered crane chick was 2 1/2 months old and had been found with a broken leg. The costume appears to mimic an adult crane as the worker uses a puppet head and neck on its arm to "drink" from the pond when the chick is looking.

FreeMe shared that the puppet, Waldo, is "an all important tool in the rehabilitation, hand raising, and keeping wild of Wattled Crane chicks." Two workers at the center have mastered the art of mimicking an adult wattled crane's behavior. "This is a vital part of the rehabilitation process. If one does not intimately understand the physiology, the ethology, and the psychology of one's subject, one cannot successfully rehabilitate it..." FreeMe shared.

People might wonder why they don't just put another bird in the enclosure to teach it, but introducing animals to one another isn't always that simple, especially in captivity. Lots of people expressed their desire to do this job and some also shared other experiences with teaching birds how to be birds.

"Amazing! When I've rescued baby pigeons often they won't peck seeds unless there are other birds around, soo sometimes I'll put on a YouTube video of birds eating and then they get it."

"i hatch chickens and they do this too!! they don't come out of the egg knowing how to eat and drink, but they don't need to eat for the first 24-36 hours (they stay in the incubator to dry out). the first bunch will be able to teach the others, but those first hatched need to be taught. you do that by 'pecking' the food and water with your finger, they typically catch on in seconds and then don't need to be taught again."

Walking Chicken GIFGiphy

"This is exactly how the San Diego Zoo (amongst others) takes care of baby California condors so they don't imprint. Since they were so critically endangered and almost extinct in the wild, they used puppets to teach them how to be birds so they could be released and rebound their populations. And they were incredibly successful!"

As we saw recently with a man incubating an abandoned duck egg and raising the duckling for rehab, it's important for vulnerable wildlife to have humans who understand how to help them without making them dependent. The goal of a wildlife rescue should be to help an animal thrive in its natural habitat if at all possible, and if not, to at least make sure it knows how do the things others in its species can do. There are rare exceptions, of course, when a rescue animal is disabled or has a history that makes it human dependent, but as the FreeMe website states, the purpose a rehabilitation center is "to rehabilitate these animals so that they may be released back into the wild in areas free from poaching and with reduced human activity."

And sometimes it takes creative tools like a silly-looking costume to achieve that goal.

Photo by Beyzaa Yurtkuran on Pexels and Photo by Mariano Mollo on Unsplash

Bird can't stop kissing and loving on her babies in adorable video

Birds can be pretty amazing companions. Many birds live a lot longer than dogs and cats, giving you a buddy for life depending on when you get them. Some parrots can live up to 50 years, while the longest living cockatoo, Cookie, lived to be 82-years-old. If you get one of these amazing talking feathered friends, you should make plans to put them in your will. Literally, it's advised you put these long-living birds in your will so there's a plan in place for their care.

But their long lifespan isn't the only reason people can't get enough of these pets. Just like children, these birds learn to mimic what you say and how you say it, which allows them to engage in endearing moments. In a video compilation uploaded to social media by @themothergothel on TikTok, you get to see their adorable behavior play out in front of you. A blue ringneck parrot is captured loving on some brand new baby birds and it's the sweetest thing.


In the video you see the bird approach a baby bird and give it a loud smooch before saying, "Want to pet the baby!" Another clip shows what appears to be the same bird giving kisses to a different baby bird saying, "I love you!" over and over. It's beyond adorable and repeats again with two little nearly featherless baby birds soaking up the attention. It's not clear if this is a bird rescue, someone that really loves birds or if it's different birds that look and sound strikingly similar. Whatever the context, people's hearts melted at the interaction. Watch:

"I love that the parrot is clearly demonstrating its understanding of the expressions of endearment it has learned from you," one person comments.

"I cannot believe parrots are real and we're so nonchalant about it," another marvels.

"The bird actually transferred the love that you gave him and repeated the act to his babe," a commenter gushes.

Parrots are indeed real and somehow we're just used to these guys flying around and talking to us. Whenever life gets a little too mundane, circle back to this video for a serotonin boost, a smile, and a sweet reminder of how incredible nature truly is.

This article originally appeared March.

Pets

Pet cockatiel is obsessed with singing 'September' by Earth, Wind and Fire

Kiki remembers the 21st night of September ALL. THE. TIME. and it's actually quite impressive.

Representative hoto by Saqib Iqbal Digital on Unsplash

Apparently, "September" is all the rage with cockatiels.

“Do you remember…the 21st night of September?” has been one of the most iconic song openings of the past 45 years, as the R&B hit by Earth, Wind and Fire perpetually serves as a catchy favorite for dance clubs, movie scenes and TikTok clips alike. However, "September" has also gained wild popularity among an unlikely group—pet cockatiels.

One cockatiel in particular has taken a shining to the song to the point of obsession, to the combined delight and chagrin of his owner. You see, Kiki doesn’t just like listening to the song, he sings and dances to it. Loudly. Over and over. At uncomfortable hours of the morning.

Kiki’s owner has shared multiple examples of her pet bird reveling in his favorite song, and it’s hilarious every time.

Watch:

@kiki.tiel

Send help plz wheres the off button on parrot #fyp #foryou #bird #cockatiel #parrotsoftiktok #birdsoftiktok

"Kiki…it's 7 o'clock in the morning…" Yeah, Kiki does not care. Kiki is feelin' the groove.

This isn't just a one-off and it's also not just a random song. Here we can see that Kiki recognizes it and sings it when his owner plays it. (Just after pooing on her leg—the reality of having a bird, in case these videos make you want one).

@kiki.tiel

Babywipes handy at all hours 🫡 #bird #cockatiel #fyp #foryou #september #parrot

But Kiki doesn't even need anyone else around in order to sing his favorite song. Here he is singing and dancing all by himself when his owner left the room and left her camera running to see what he would do.

@kiki.tiel

Partying without me :( #cockatielsoftiktok #birds #fyp #for you

As cute and hilarious as this is, it surely gets old after a while, right? It's one thing to watch in a video—it's got to be entirely another to hear it all the time at home.

It's also not just a Kiki quirk. Apparently, "September" is a "thing" among cockatiels. Other cockatiels have been known to love it and sing it, though not quite as well as Kiki does.

Someone on Reddit asked why so many cockatiels love the song—one person even said it was basically the cockatiel national anthem at this point. No one knows exactly why, but this explanation by Reddit user nattiecakes is as good an explanation as any:

"Yeah, cockatiels genuinely like the song in a way they don’t universally take to many other songs. My cockatiel is 17 and early in life basically seemed to max out his harddrive space learning a little bit of La Cucaracha, The Flintstones theme, the phrase 'pretty bird,' and this horrible alarm clock sound that is similar to the hungry baby cockatiel sound. We thought we could not get him to learn anything else because they do have some limits.

Then 'September' came. Every cockatiel loved it. We decided to see if our cockatiel loved it.

I sh*t y’all not, within a DAY he whistled the first three notes, which is really all that matters. He hasn’t been able to learn more, but he loves it.

Now our African grey whistles it to him constantly. He used to reliably whistle La Cucaracha to our cockatiel when our cockatiel would get angry and upset, and our cockatiel would start singing instead and forget he’d been upset. But almost immediately our grey switched to using 'September' 90% of the time. Like, it’s so plain even to our grey that 'September' is the song to unlock a cockatiel’s better nature. I think the grey likes it a lot too, but he has many other songs he likes better.

As for why cockatiels like this song so much… all I can guess is it really resonates with their cheery vibe. I think the inside of a cockatiel’s mind is usually like a disco."

Rock on, Kiki. Just maybe not so early in the morning.


This article originally appeared in April.

Science

An old male bald eagle who adopted a rock as an egg has just been given a real foster baby

People are totally invested in Murphy becoming a real dad after he spent weeks nurturing his "RockBaby."

Murphy meets a rescued eaglet—his new foster baby.

On March 8, 2023, a keeper at World Bird Sanctuary in St. Louis County, Missouri, noticed something odd. A male bald eagle named Murphy was guarding what appeared to be a large depression in the ground. “The spot was sparsely but carefully decorated with leaves and branches, and featured a simple rock right in the center,” the nature preserve shared on its Facebook page.

Murphy began sitting on the rock, nudging it and becoming fiercely protective of it, as it if were an egg. People visiting the sanctuary would inquire about the bald eagle just sitting there, wondering if he was okay. The keepers finally put up a sign that read:

“If you see an eagle lying down in the back left corner under a perch, that’s Murphy! Murphy is not hurt, sick, or otherwise in distress. He has built a nest on the ground, and is very carefully incubating a rock! We wish him the best of luck!”

In case you’re wondering if this is unusual behavior for a 31-year-old male bald eagle, the answer is "not really, but…." Male bald eagles do share equally in nesting and baby-raising, so the paternal instinct part is normal. Murphy's channeling of that instinct onto a rock…maybe not so much. And at 31, he's more like a great-granddad than dad, as bald eagles usually live 20 to 30 years in the wild (though they do live longer in captivity).

Murphy takes fatherhood seriously, though. Soon he began screaming and charging at the four other eagles in the aviary if they came anywhere near RockBaby. (That's the official name the keepers gave Murphy’s…well, rock baby.) Naturally, the screaming and charging caused a fair amount of stress for all involved, so Murphy and RockBaby were moved to their own enclosure for everyone's protection.

People who saw this unfold started suggesting sanctuary staff replace Murphy’s rock with a real egg or get him a mate, but 1) Eagle eggs aren’t just lying around waiting to be given to wanna-be dads, 2) hatching a different kind of bird's egg would be potentially dangerous for it, and 3) Murphy had two females right there in the aviary, and none of them were interested in each other. Alas, the heart cannot be forced.

However, a different opportunity presented itself in late March when an aerie with two chicks in it was blown down by high winds. One chick didn’t survive the fall, but the other was brought to World Bird Sanctuary’s Wildlife Hospital.

A bit bruised, but otherwise healthy, the chick was given a good prognosis. Staff began feeding it while wearing a camouflage suit and holding an eagle stuffy to prevent the eaglet from imprinting on humans. What the baby really needed was a foster parent—an adult eagle who would feed and care for it.

“Murphy’s dad instincts were already in high gear,” the sanctuary wrote on April 11, “but at 31 years old, he had never raised a chick before. It’s definitely a gamble, but also the chick’s best chance.”

Introducing an eaglet to an adult eagle isn’t as simple as dropping it in the enclosure. First, the eaglet is put into what the sanctuary refers to as a “baby jail," which is a heated, comfy cage made of wood and wire that protects the eaglet but still allows some interaction between the birds so they can get used to one another. Once the desired bonding behavior is observed, then they try out some direct one-on-one interaction without the cage.

On April 12, World Bird Sanctuary announced, "IT'S HAPPENING!!!!"

The eaglet (referred to as Bald Eaglet 23-126—they don't name foster babies at the sanctuary for superstitious reasons) was released from baby jail, and after an hour or so Murphy approached it with curiosity. Was he wondering if his RockBaby had hatched? Maybe. Would he be the nurturing dad everyone hoped he would be? It appears so.

As the sanctuary shared:

"This morning, Murphy got his chance to be a full parent as 23-126 left the nest to go be closer to Murphy. The food is being dropped through a blind drop tube into the nest and baby appears unable to be able to get over the lip to get back into the nest to get the chopped food. When we checked back, we found that baby was still out of the nest and all the chopped food was still in the nest. However, Murphy’s whole fish had been removed from the nest and baby had a full crop. 23-126 is not yet old enough to tear food which means MURPHY FED THE BABY!!!!"

The comments on the update, of course, are pure gold as people have become fully invested in this story:

"I can’t believe I’m crying over eagles!"

"Murphy’s going to be giving a TedTalk: Manifest The Eaglet You Need In Your Life."

"So happy for Murphy & eaglet Dwayne (the rock Johnson)."

"'Rock, I am your Father.'"

"Omg I’m crying! Murphy never gave up on his rock and now has a baby of his very own❤️The wonders of nature never cease. Ty, WBS, for making this possible. These two are saving each other❤️🦅❤️🦅🪨🐣."

Many people have lamented that there is not a live cam so we can all watch this pair as their relationship develops, but staff reminded everyone that the sanctuary is out in the middle of the woods and they don't have a strong enough signal for a live stream.

But WBS staff has been posting updates on social media and will share the story as it continues to unfold. Follow World Bird Sanctuary on Facebook here. And if you feel compelled to donate to help feed little Dwayne or 23-126 or whatever you'd like to call Murphy's new baby—who apparently eats a ridiculous amount—you can donate here or check out their Amazon baby registry (yes, seriously!) here.

Congratulations, Papa Murphy!


This article originally appeared last year.