Fate of a Fiesty Duck

Last weekend a resident of Sanctuary Point noticed a Chestnut Teal duck in her garden that was trailing a length of fishing line. She called Australian Seabird Rescue and Shari & Shawn from Sanctuary Point successfully caught him. The local vets xrayed him, which showed that the position of a fishing hook attached to the line was very low in his gut and chances of his survival were slim. Shari and Shawn were coming to Wollongong to release a young penguin rehabed from its exhausting adventure, getting lost on uncertain currents in Lake Illawarra and now ready to go back home there, so they called Betty, Wollongong's ASR wildlife carer. She suggested bringing the duck to her and she would get another opinion from the vets at Cannon and Ball in the Gong who specialise in birds. Very quickly he proved a lively little bloke this duck, fiesty in fact and a bit of a Houdini......

Vet Kim of Canon and Ball could see from the xrays his chances could go either way, she explained later that the hook was embedded very close to his 'gizzard' and damage to it during surgery would be fatal. He escaped during this first consult and was not easy to catch even in small confines of the consulting rooms, "He's pretty fit" thought Kim, "worth a try!"

Xray of Fiesty Duck showing location of hook

He came through surgery very well and his rehab with Betty is promising, (he needed post op care, antibiotics and time for his wound to close). He has a check up with vet Kim tomorrow, if all is as good as it looks then he will be released this weekend at Sanctury Point, just over a week from his first capture.

Hook and line surgically removed from Fiesty Duck.

Fiesty Duck in his rehabilitation accommodation.

This looks like a pretty good outcome for the fiesty duck but there is a big moral in his story. Water birds and animals suffer dreadful, painful injuries and death from fishing line and fishing hooks, so please pass on this message to everyone you know who goes fishing:

DON'T leave fishing line and fishing hooks unattended in the environment

DO check that you have not inadvertently dropped any of your line or hooks

And if you hook a bird:-           

DON'T cut the line, gently reel in the bird until you can hold it securely with its wings folded to its body. Seek help from your nearest vet or ring ASR 0431 282 238.

A bird entanged with fishing line means it can be in a lot of pain and most often will suffer a painful, slow death.

Annie

Sanctuary Pt Rescue

We received a call from Sanctuary Pt today. The fishermen down there had noticed a pelican with a float tangled around his wing, a couple of weeks ago, but we only heard about it today. After the long drive down we found the pelican at the first boatramp we went to. Betty first tried throwing some fish out to see how close he would come but although he was hungry, he was a little shy. So we set the noose up and Kathryn had her first go at using it. The noose is set just above the water line and fish are thrown in front with the idea that the pelican will walk through the noose to get to the fish. Sometimes it goes to plan but other times every other pelican except the one you are trying to catch comes up. Today all went well and the pelican we wanted came straight up. He must've been really hungry. He had no hooks and was easy to untangle, so was soon off feeling a lot more comfortable.