The kea who fell to Earth and suffered concussion
How many humans does it take to save one of the most intelligent birds on the planet?
Meet Samson, a kea who spent six months recovering from a head injury, helped by many people from across southern New Zealand.
Kea are ordinarily inquisitive problem-solvers but Samson was left docile and lethargic after a brush with human technology.
The adult male kea was injured in a net gun incident during a bird survey in the Stuart Mountains in Fiordland in January.
The incident unfolded after the survey contractors found a group of 44 of the alpine parrots – ‘‘one of the largest’’ groups they’d seen in the area.
As part of the survey, the kea are captured and banded. Blood samples are also taken to test for lead poisoning.
Samson was caught by the net gun but landed badly on rocks, Tamsin Orr-Walker, of the Kea Conservation Trust, said.
He was dopey and offered little response to stimulation: ‘‘All of his symptoms were like a human who has been seriously concussed.’’
Samson was kept next to the chest of a contractor for several days.
He was hand-fed while arrangements were made to fly him, by helicopter, to Queenstown. There, a vet said he needed specialist care.
The Department of Conservation arranged for Samson to take flight once more – this time with Air New Zealand – and on to treatment at Dunedin’s Wildlife Hospital.
‘‘They have been just fantastic,’’ Orr-Walker said of the hospital, which opened in January.
Wildlife Hospital Trust secretary Jordana Whyte said Samson was one of the newly fledged hospital’s longest-staying patients, alongside Widget the takahe.
Kea are intelligent so it was important to keep them stimulated – and to keep their cages padlocked.
But that was not the case for Samson. His head injury rendered him docile: unlike other kea and he did not need tight security..
‘‘Because of the head injury he was a bit more lethargic than you would have expected for a healthy kea to be and that was one of the reasons why we knew he needed more time.’’
The prognosis looked good for Samson. After months of recovery – including after an earlier relapse after being sent back to Queenstown - it was determined he could leave the hospital in July.
Orr-Walker said Samson had been recovering at Queenstown’s Kiwi Birdlife Park, where his balance was initially assessed as being very poor.
But after he was transferred to the display enclosure, which offered ‘‘good flight area’’ and 24/7 cameras, Samson was flying and interacting with his surrounds.