DAR chick #39-09 has always been the chick living life on the edge.  After hatching, he ate and drank so little that the staff at ICF had to tube feed him as well as giving him fluids to keep him from losing too much weight.  Once he started gaining weight, we noticed that he was eating a lot of pebbles off the ground during exercise time; it is normal for birds to consume some pebbles to aid in digestion, but we wondered a bit whether he just appeared to be gaining weight because his belly was full of rocks!  One day, he was swimming in the pool at ICF when he slowly began to sink beneath the surface – luckily the costume was able to grab him and pull him out before he drowned!

Number 39-09’s latest mishap was identified earlier this month.  He had been moving very slowly and limping for a couple of weeks, so Marianne, Julie, and I packed him into a crate and drove him down to ICF so that Dr. Barry Hartup, veterinarian, could radiograph his legs.  Julie and I watched from the door of the exam room for a couple of hours, giving updates to passersby, as Barry, his students, and Marianne took radiographs, drew blood samples, and gave him injections.  The final diagnosis was that #39-09 has a ruptured muscle in his left leg. 

While there was a good deal of debate over what to do next, #39-09 ended up coming back to Necedah NWR with us later that day.  The muscle will not be repaired, but the chick seems more comfortable each day, and he now gets rather upset if we leave him in the night pen to rest while we take the other birds out for exercise.  We were worried that he might have difficulty learning to fly with his now crooked legs, but the other day I was out in the day pen with the chicks when he took off running and cleared the day pen fence.  Foraging out in the water on the other side of the fence, I can imagine he was pretty pleased with his accomplishment.  While #39-09 will not be released into the wild with his injury, I’m glad to see he is making the most of his time at Necedah NWR!

Update by Kate Wyman, DAR Intern.