Purple patch over
A ruru will soon find his wings again after being nursed back to health.
Purple, the morepork, is weeks away from being released back into the wild after he was discovered sick and alone in the Wellington region at Christmas. Veterinarians at Wellington Zoo treated the three-week-old manu (bird) for wounds on his feet and he was taken to Palmerston North’s Wildbase Recovery for rehabilitation in January.
As Purple’s stay continued, staff at the recovery centre realised something wasn’t right. Wildbase Hospital technician and recovery supervisor Pauline Nijman noticed Purple’s feathers were soaking up water, and with weatherproofing being a threshhold for release into the wild, she began to investigate. Nijman discovered flaky skin beneath Purple’s chest feathers that had spread, caused by the bacteria cocci. Purple was unable to rid himself of the bacteria but Nijman knew the remedy.
One 40 degree Celsius bath in chlorhexidine, a chemical Wildbase uses to clean oil from birds caught in spills, and Purple is on the mend, Nijman said. ‘‘It’s worlds apart from what it was. ‘‘I’m hoping now that we’ve got that under control, he’ll be able to go [into the wild].’’
Watching Purple soar across his aviary, Nijman was confident he would be back in the trees in coming weeks.
‘‘Rehab is much the same as for people who build up muscle to do what you would normally do, whether that’s walking up stairs or flying from tree to tree to smash berries.
‘‘They need care to make sure they can fly and survive in the wild, they also need to prove they can hunt.
‘‘There’s lots of predators out there and weather events.
‘‘It’s a very harsh place, it’s very unforgiving; you don’t get food delivered to you.’’
Wildbase had operated for more than 20 years, and saw about 120,000 people through the recovery centre’s doors each year.