Drunken parrots falling from sky

[n2doc]

BY: JOHN PICKRELL/MELISSA LEONG WITH AAP | JUNE-4-2010



Red-collared lorikeets range from The Kimberly coast to the western margins of the Gulf of Carpentaria (Credit: Mitch Reardon)
SEEMINGLY DRUNKEN AND HUNGOVER parrots are dropping out of the sky in the Northern Territory and experts are at a loss to explain why.

The red-collared lorikeets lose coordination and pass out after eating a mystery food, Lisa Hansen, of the Ark Animal Hospital at Palmerston, near Darwin said on Thursday. Red-collared lorikeets are an NT subspecies of the rainbow lorikeet (Trichoglossus rubritorquis).

"It happens every year around this season, they lose all balance and we find them fallen out of trees and the sky," she says. "Unless someone intervenes, they can't fly and will get picked up by predators."

Unable to function

"It seems that the birds get intoxicated by something they have eaten and it renders them unable to fly and function... they can get very sick as a result." Around eight to ten birds a day have been brought to the hospital after falling to the ground in backyards and along roadsides. There are now a total of 40 lorikeets receiving treatment.

"We are fairly certain it's a plant, but we don't know which plant. People talk about seeing drunken birds under umbrella trees when they are flowering," says Lisa. "However, most say those birds recovered and flew away afterwards. That is not happening to these guys... sometimes they need intensive care before we can put them out in the aviaries."


Read more: http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/drunken-parrots-falling-from-sky.htm

[marmar]

1. ......

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. " He won't eat"

[Tesha]

3. Those Norwegian Blues do that y'know! (NT)

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. "Lovely blue color, tho, eh?"

:rofl:

[dickthegrouch]

6. One of all-time fave Monty Python lines /nt

[jgraz]

5. We had a similar problem with the wild San Francisco flock

Turned out to be a neuroparasite they picked up from raccoons.

[Orsino]

7. Meanwhile, drunken parrotheads refuse to fall down.

[4_TN_TITANS]

8. As lorikeets are vegetarians

I wouldn't think it strange that some occassionally eat some fermented fruit or berries.

[DavidDvorkin]

9. Assuming there are some that tend not to eat whatever is causing this

and predators get the ones who do eat it, natural selection will take care of the problem.