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Rare Western Snowy Plover Chick Successfully Returned to Wild Following Aquarium Rehabilitation
NEWPORT, Ore -- Members of the Oregon Coast Aquarium aviary staff recently became foster parents behind the scenes to help an abandoned Western snowy plover chick. On July 17, biologists from The Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked for assistance when a hatching Western snowy plover egg was recovered after being abandoned from a hatched nest on an Oregon coast site managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The bird was successfully released at the site Monday (August 26).
Todd Dunkirk, the Aquarium's senior aviculturist of birds, explained that since there were no signs of the parents or siblings at the nest, biologists decided that the hatching egg could not be placed in another hatching nest. It was then determined to have the bird raised by hand and to release the hatchling back to the wild. "We hoped to raise the chick until fledging time, when it would then be released near its original nest site in the company of other wild plovers," he said.
The Western snowy plover is listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act of 1993. The chick released Monday is only one of 25 confirmed hatchings along Oregon's shoreline this year. Oregon has approximately 113 plovers, about 80 of which breed.
Western snowy plovers are small, pale-colored shorebirds with dark patches on either side of the upper breast. The coastal population, of which only about 80 individual birds remain, breeds along the Pacific coast from southern Washington to southern Baja California, Mexico. They are now absent from most of their historic breeding areas.
Adults typically lay three, well-camouflaged eggs on bare sand. Newly hatched chicks are the size of a small cotton ball and are difficult to see, making them vulnerable to trampling. Human and animal disturbances can also result in nest abandonment or in parent-chick separation. Other dangers to nesting plovers include the loss of habitat due to beach grass onto its preferred bare-sand nesting area, predators - such as crows and ravens - blowing sand and severe weather.
Once the eggs have hatched, the male does the rearing while the female leaves to find another mate and nest again. The female can produce up to four nests with eggs per season, depending on the success of the nests. Males stay with the chicks for about a month, or until they have sufficient foraging skills and grow their flight feathers.
Becoming foster parents to a threatened bird species from the wild has proved most interesting for the Aquarium staff, who sought the assistance of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and other successful wild bird rehabilitation groups. Dunkirk noted, "Our most important challenge was caring for this single hatchling without it imprinting, or becoming too habituated to humans. We have no snowy plover adults here to act as role models for the chick."
A mirror provided the solution to the imprinting problem, where the chick was able to see the reflection of another snowy plover (itself) and not that of its human care-takers. Dunkirk added that human contact was kept to an absolute minimum, with visual observations of the chick conducted from hidden areas and minimal handling of the bird during weight measurements.
While in rehabilitation at the Aquarium, the chick was fed live food normally found in its natural shore-type habitats, including live insects and invertebrates such as amphipods, or beach-hoppers. The final holding area for the Western snowy plover was large enough for the young bird to exercise its wings and learn to fly well enough to avoid predators and seek food.
Biologists doing plover surveys for The Nature Conservancy, who originally recovered the hatching egg at the nest site, returned the fledged bird back to the same area on the southern Oregon Coast for Monday's release. The bird's nesting season from mid-March to mid-September coincides with the summer beach season along the Oregon coast, when people are most likely to visit sandy shorelines areas for recreation. BLM and Oregon Department of Parks and Recreation manage the nesting areas by providing predator control, protected areas away from recreational activities and habitat restoration.
Well known as the rehabilitation site of Keiko the killer whale, the Aquarium has rehabilitated and released (when possible) injured and oiled seabirds, endangered fur seals, harbor seal pups, tropical sea turtles and other marine animals as facilities allow.
The Oregon Coast Aquarium is accredited by the American Zoo & Aquarium Association, assuring the highest standards of animal care and husbandry. Its award-winning husbandry program includes honors and recognition for successes in bird breeding, jelly rearing, advances in solving fish-eye disease and animal rehabilitation efforts.
As one of the top 10 aquariums in the nation, the Oregon Coast Aquarium-a private, nonprofit organization-has provided more than $75-million in economic impact for Oregonians. In the past 10 years, the Aquarium has welcomed more than seven million visitors, and over 370,000 schoolchildren have participated in marine education programs.
For additional information about the Oregon Coast Aquarium, surf www.aquarium.org or call 541-867-FISH (867-3474).
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Additional contact information:
U.S. Bureau of Land Management
Alan Hoffmeister, Public Affairs Officer
541-756-0100
alan_hoffmeister@or.blm.gov
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Jenny Valdivia
503-231-6121
Jenny_Valdivia@r1.fws.gov
The Nature Conservancy
David Lauten & Kathleen Castelein, biologists
541-347-1603
birdsong@harborside.com
Downloadable image links of the Western snowy plover chick during rehabilitation:
http://www.aquarium.org/press/pictures/RehabAnimalsPictures/SnowyPloverRehab082002/SnowyPloverChick13Rehab082002AtOregonCoastAquariumByAllenBlevins.jpg
http://www.aquarium.org/press/pictures/RehabAnimalsPictures/SnowyPloverRehab082002/SnowyPloverChick14Rehab082002AtOregonCoastAquariumByAllenBlevins.jpg
http://www.aquarium.org/press/pictures/RehabAnimalsPictures/SnowyPloverRehab082002/SnowyPloverChick16Rehab082002AtOregonCoastAquariumByAllenBlevins.jpg
This article courtesy of http://birdflu-avian.com.
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