Orange Gull Found (and Cleaned) After Falling Into Curry
A dangerously delicious disaster is averted, thanks to the quick actions of wildlife rescuers.
Early last week the staff at a food factory in Wales made a startling discovery: a bright orange Herring Gull. It wasn鈥檛 a natural anomaly, as this gull hadn鈥檛 come by . Instead, it had fallen into a waste vat of chicken tikka masala, a staple of Anglo-Indian cuisine.
How the bird managed to itself into a giant vat of curry isn鈥檛 quite clear, but it鈥檚 likely that it was scavenging for food. Gulls are cheerfully omnivorous, so it wouldn鈥檛 be out of character for one to be for chicken. The animal probably fell into the masala by accident and got its feathers with sauce. At that point, despite the comical nature of the incident, the bird鈥檚 life was put in a -trivial amount of danger.
A dip into a spicy dish isn鈥檛 the kind of widespread environmental disaster that, say, thespill posed. But to the bird (nicknamed by its rescuers) it was calamity enough. Fortunately, the staff of a wildlife hospital was able to save the gull's life. We tried to with the hospital's staff, but were unable to reach them in time for publication. They probably weren鈥檛 trying to be ; the time difference makes communication awkward. Instead, we in Paige Davis, a naturalist and animal-rescue worker at the in Missouri, to see what she had to say on the .
On a microscopic level, feathers have tiny, hooked barbs that interlock to keep a bird both waterproofed and temperature-controlled. Oil, be it crude from a leaking well or grease from a delicious curry, mats feathers and tangles these barbs, resulting in a loss of both insulation and seaworthiness. Once their feathers have been covered in excess oil, most birds will attempt to clean themselves by preening, typically to the exclusion of all other survival behavior, including eating, sleeping, and avoiding predators. In the process, they are likely to poison themselves by ingesting whatever it is that's gunking up their feathers. If that doesn鈥檛 kill them, starvation or exposure usually will.
There's a shocking lack of scientific literature on the effects of avian immersion in Indian takeout, but according to Davis, rescue workers would have to treat the grease in the sauce much like oil from a spill. Gullfrazi would have to be washed several times with water and dish detergent and then kept in rehab until it regains its natural waterproofing and recovers from whatever trauma or starvation it experienced. According to reports, Gullfrazi鈥檚 cleanup went well and the savory-smelling gull is on the road to recovery.
All joking aside, Gullfrazi's story has a happy ending, but it could have been a tragedy if it had gone another way. Even seemingly benign industrial waste can be dangerous to wildlife, and it's our responsibility to keep the rest of the natural world safe from our activities.
That said, if you鈥檙e hungry for Indian food after reading this piece, don鈥檛 feel guilty. We definitely were after writing it. But just this once, maybe skip the chicken tikka. There鈥檚 no sense in tempting fate.