Animals - Happy Spot

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It was hot all over south-eastern Australia last week. It was so hot that even the natives were feeling restless.

Last Friday, this native koala decided he'd had enough. Sitting in eucalypt trees is fine for furry marsupials up to a point - a thermometer point somewhere below the 40-plus centigrade in which his preferred trees were baking. As they say, how much can a koala bear?

So he decided to find some shade.

He found it on the back verandah of a house in Maude, a town in the Hot Zone, north of Adelaide, South Australia.

The residents took one look at the little fella and gave him a big bowl of water to drink.

He drank, and then turned the bowl into a koala swimming pool.

Luxury.

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Animals, Happy Spot

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A love story

October 19th 2008 22:42

When Fred was in hospital about two years ago he accidentally slammed into a closed door and spent the next two days in a coma. Cynthia was the duty doctor and she nursed him back to health as best she could. Fred still hasn't fully recovered - probably never will - but he's not complaining too much since the accident helped him find Cynthia, his true love.

Fred is a rainbow lorikeet, a spectacularly colourful bird found in Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and several Pacific islands. When he hit that door, he was flying as fast as he could, trying to escape from a veterinary clinic. Of course, that's before he met Cynthia.

She is Dr Cynthia Hand, an American veterinary surgeon working for a period in Australia. She fell in love with Fred too.

As Fred recovered, he and Cynthia became inseparable. Her day involved work at the veterinary hospital and study at the university. Fred just went everywhere with her.

Part of Cynthia's day was also given to treating Fred's injuries. When he flew into that door, Fred did some serious damage. Today he can walk and climb, but he still can't fly or perch properly.

Not that he cared much so long as Cynthia was around.

And then, suddenly, she was no longer around. In a heart-wrenching inevitability, Cynthia's time in Australia came to an end and she had to return to the US. She said a sad farewell to Fred, but he didn't understand the words. He didn't understand until a few hours went by and no Cynthia came by to say hi. And then a few more hours, followed by interminable days.

Fred, left in the care of a veterinary clinic, was shattered, but not broken. He decided to protest with every means at his disposal. He took to constant screaming from his cage and picking out of his feathers. They had to put a special collar on him to stop the self-mutilation. There wasn't much they could do about the screaming.

When Cynthia heard about this, she realised that she had made a mistake leaving Fred behind. This was true love after all and love must have its way. She decided to bring Fred to America.

Dark days lay ahead. As Fred wrestled with his loneliness and his feathers, Cynthia wrestled with a far more intractable demon - government bureaucracy.

Cynthia's application for Fred to emigrate was refused because it was deemed to be in contravention of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Bureaucrats, as Cynthia was to find out, cared neither for true love nor plain language.

Well, said Cynthia, if Fred can protest, so can I. She lodged an appeal.

This is a brave thing to do. An appeal in situations like this means a tribunal. A tribunal is a collection of bureaucrats who at the appointed hour in the appointed place sit behind a desk and look at you as if they detest and deplore the fact that you use so few multisyllables.

Cynthia gave evidence by phone from America. Rainbow lorikeets, she said, are monogamous and have a well-chronicled history of forming strong bonds with humans. Fred, she said, was suffering separation anxiety. Further, his absence had affected her personal and family life.

We would like to report that the bureaucrats wept openly at this story and, recognising an imperative when they saw one, swept aside the law of the land in the name of true love.

Not quite. The tribunal said it was "satisfied" Fred's circumstances were exceptional, and that his export would promote the humane treatment of wildlife and would not affect biodiversity.

Fred is already in Los Angeles impatiently sitting out a 30-day quarantine period. After that he will, finally, be reunited with Cynthia. That they will live happily ever after is certain.
theage.com.au, wikipedia.org, image: sydneywildlifeworld.com.au

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Animals, Happy Spot

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