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Bird Doused in Gulf Oil
Photograph by Alex Brandon, AP
Rescue workers carefully clean an oil-soaked northern gannet bird at a facility in Fort Jackson, Louisiana. Oil from the massive Deepwater Horizon rig spill began reaching the U.S. Gulf Coast on Thursday night, making its first landfall along Louisiana's "bird's foot" delta and barrier marshes. (See "Oil Spill Hits Gulf Coast Habitats.")
Louisiana's coast serves as a winter resting spot for more than 70 percent of the country's waterfowl, and the region is used by more than a hundred tropical migratory birds, said Melanie Driscoll, director of bird conservation for the National Audubon Society's Louisiana Coastal Initiative. (See waterbird pictures.)
Officials with the joint federal-industry team responding to the rig accident said that more than 217,000 feet (66,142 meters) of containment booms have been deployed to try to keep the oil slick from reaching the ecologically sensitive area. Wildlife workers are also firing loud cannons to "haze" birds from the water's edge.
—Reporting by Craig Guillot in New OrleansPublished April 30, 2010
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Pepto to the Rescue
Photograph by Alex Brandon, AP
A rescue worker feeds a northern gannet bird from the Gulf of Mexico region a dose of Pepto-Bismol today to combat complications from oil ingested when the bird tried to preen its feathers.
Birds are highly vulnerable to oil spills, because they normally use their water-resistant feathers as natural "wet suits." When oil covers them, it creates holes in the barrier, allowing cool water to get against their skin. Because waterfowl have normal body temperatures between 103 and 106 degrees Fahrenheit (39 and 41 Celsius), heat loss in the water can be fatal.
"They can't maintain that temperature and have to come ashore to stay warm," said Michael Ziccardi, director of the California-based Oiled Wildlife Care Network. "But when they're ashore, they can't eat. It just creates a vicious cycle."Published April 30, 2010
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Gulf of Mexico "Boom" Town
Photograph by William Colgin, the Sun Herald via AP
Two brown pelicans stand among a flock of seagulls on the shore of Ship Island, Mississippi, on Thursday while an oil containment boom floats in the water nearby.
The brown pelican, the state bird of Louisiana, was just last year removed from the U.S. endangered species list. Now the birds, which are in nesting season on the Gulf Coast, lie in the direct path of what officials fear may become one of the biggest oil spills in the nation's history.Published April 30, 2010
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Gliding Over Gulf Oil Spill
Photograph by Sean Gardner/Greenpeace/handout/Reuters
Light-colored birds fly over the dark, oil-stained waters of the Gulf of Mexico, as seen in an aerial picture taken Thursday above the Chandeleur Islands, south of Louisiana. (See more pictures of the Gulf oil spill from the air.)
Many coastal birds are now getting ready to pair bond, court, and nest, noted the Louisiana Coastal Initiative's Driscoll. Meanwhile, response team members are struggling to contain the estimated 5,000 barrels of oil a day (210,000 gallons, or 794,937 liters) thought to be flowing into the Gulf of Mexico from a BP-leased well on the seafloor.Published April 30, 2010
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Gulf Birds Surrounded
Photograph by Sean Gardner/Greenpeace/handout/Reuters
Birds settle into water surrounded by oil-containment booms off the coast of Breton Sound Island, near Louisiana, on Thursday.
In addition to myriad waterbirds, many other animals are at risk due to the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, including heavily furred creatures such as otters and nutria, which are semiaquatic rodents, said the Oiled Wildlife Care Network's Ziccardi. Dolphins and whales can get skin irritations, and sea turtles are susceptible to oil ingestion, because they often come to the surface to feed.
The Gulf of Mexico oil spill comes at an especially bad time for sea turtles, which are entering their spring nesting season.Published April 30, 2010
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