Workshop teaches participants how to treat birds affected by oil
BROWNSVILLE — The Gladys Porter Zoo held its third Oiled Wildlife Response Workshop on Thursday, with more than 60 participants learning how to treat birds affected by the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and similar disasters.
“I’ve heard that in the previous two workshops, we have had half the amount” of people, said Cynthia A. Garza Galvan, the zoo’s director of marketing. “Now there was definitely a lot more interest in the community, mostly because of what is happening in the gulf right now.”
The workshop is a collaboration with the Wildlife Rehab and Education Center in Houston, the Texas General Land Office, the Port of Brownsville and the Citgo refinery in Corpus Christi.
Officials and volunteers from the University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College and the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg attended the event, as did representatives from various local organizations including the government of Tamaulipas.
“So many people from the community came out,” said Nicole Garcia, a workshop participant. “There were students, law enforcement, teachers and veterinarians.”
Garcia, a student at Texas A&M University who is interning at the zoo, wanted to learn more about the effects of oil on birds.
“It’s a good way of learning information and gaining experience,” she said.
Participants had six hours of classes that covered the definition of crude oil and its health effects on people and animals, said Tom W. DeMaar, zoo veterinarian.
The other two hours of the workshop were spent learning how to hold a bird, how to put on and take off protective equipment, how to intubate a bird to orally administer rehydration-type fluids and how to wash the bird, DeMaar said.
The workshop volunteered Coscoroba swans from the zoo’s exhibit for the cleaning demonstrations.
“Each bird can take, depending on the amount of oil, anywhere between half an hour to an hour (to clean),” DeMaar said.
Apart from observational lessons, each volunteer received a bird feather with one drop of food oil, which they had to clean.
“They got to see how much work it is to get just one drop of oil off of one feather. It showed them that you need an education — you can’t just wipe it off,” DeMaar said.
Wildlife is usually treated using Dawn dishwashing liquid and 104- to 106-degree water.
At the end of the workshop, participants received a training certification that allows them to help treat birds in the event of an oil spill.
“I never knew the actual extent of damage that oil can have on birds and the possible long-term effects it could have,” Garcia said. “It was eye-opening to see that it has a really big impact.”
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Sylvia Butanda is a reporter for The Brownsville Herald.
