Flamingo rescue

AN INJURED flamingo (pictured right) is being nursed after being rescued from the Haspolat sewage treatment plant pool.

The bird was taken to safety on Wednesday last week after it was reported to the Taşkent Nature Park helpline by nature photographer and North Cyprus Society for the Protection of Birds and Nature (Kuşkor) volunteer Olkan Ergüler.

A joint operation by Taşkent Nature Park and Lefkoşa Turkish Municipality teams battled for almost seven hours to retrieve the wounded bird, which was in an extreme state of collapse after stranding in the pool and struggling to survive with an open fracture of its right shoulder and upper wing.

A spokesman said the flamingo had then undergone challenging surgery and that, although in good health, serious tissue damage to the wing also risked infection from water at the treatment plant.

Nature Park adviser and AnkaVet Animal Hospital head physician and vet Dr Tayfun Çanakçi performed the difficult surgery and advised that if the bird survived the next three weeks, he would then be able to judge whether it could be returned to the wild.

He said it had not, fortunately, sustained nerve damage and the fractured bone and soft tissues had been repaired, but muscles and tendons would require a long and painful process of rehabilitation.

The flamingo is just one of scores of wildlife casualties which have been saved after members of the public reported them to the Taşkent Wildlife Rehabilitation team by phoning their dedicated helpline number 1190.