09/05/2019
A kākāpō
chick has had its life saved after undergoing the world's first ever bird brain
surgery.
The chick,
known as Espy 1B, was born in the wild on Codfish Island and was in the care of
the Department of Conservation's (DoC's) kākāpō recovery team.
Rangers
noticed an unusual lump on Espy's head, and sent him to Dunedin Wildlife
Hospital for a CT scan. There, it was discovered his skull hadn't fused
properly.
"The
chick was hatched with a hole in its skull that allowed part of the brain and
dura (the tough barrier around the brain) to herniate out," said Massey
University's Wildbase Hospital director Professor Brett Gartrell.
"In
humans, this spot fuses after birth, but this is highly unusual in birds as the
skull has finished fusing prior to hatch."
The
concern was that Espy's soft spot left him open to trauma and infection.
Kākāpō
are critically endangered, so there was only one thing for it - it was time for
Espy to have brain surgery.
Espy was
transported to Wildbase Hospital, and last Monday a team of veterinarians and
veterinary technicians led by Professor Gartrell carried out the risky surgery.
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