News from Garners Beach

Miriwinni Girl at the Garners Beach facility, June 2007.

In May the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) released a statement advising that an adult female cassowary had died at the Garners Beach Cassowary Recovery facility, which the ARF sponsors.

Regular readers to this e-newsletter will know that Cassowary as Miriwinni Girl.

The statement from EPA concludes that the bird died following an adverse reaction to a sedative during a veterinary procedure to take blood samples.

The bird was one of three cassowaries given a sedative on the same day when it suffered the adverse reaction. The veterinarian who administered the sedative was highly experienced in dealing with cassowaries.

The bird convulsed and struck its head. Despite the efforts of the veterinarian and EPA rangers who were assisting, sadly they were unable to save the cassowary’s life. The two other birds had no adverse reaction to the sedative.

The ARF is informed that cassowaries are often sedated during veterinary procedures as they are large and potentially dangerous animals. The sedation procedure is very low risk, has been carried out by EPA veterinarians more than 60 times on cassowaries, and there has been no known adverse reaction to those previous procedures.

The blood samples were being taken to assess hormone levels. This is to help determine if another cassowary ‘Reggie’ who is suffering a mysterious feather-loss condition is affected by a hormone imbalance. Investigations had already ruled out beak and feather disease (in Reggie) as seen in parrots.

ARF Community Conservation Officer and facility caretaker Steve Garrad, was overseas at the time but was saddened to learn of the loss of Miriwinni Girl.