In a birds-eye view, the Lake Pit at La Brea Tar Pits appears to be a refreshing body of water in the middle of the developed Los Angeles cityscape.
But it became a death trap for a flock of 15 Canada geese — who landed in the sticky goo on July 31.
From above, “it looks like a pretty lake in the middle of a city,” said veterinarian Rebecca Duerr of the International Bird Rescue’s Los Angeles Wildlife Center, in San Pedro.
Listless, unable to stand and mostly immobilized by the heavy tar covering them, the prognosis was dire — and five of the seven that made it to the center died in fairly short order.
But two survived and remained under care at the San Pedro facility as of Tuesday, Aug. 15. Caregivers said they hope the geese will recover enough to be released.
One of the birds, Duerr said, in a telephone interview, had an operation on Sunday but was stable.
The other one, she said, was well enough to join other birds at the center on Tuesday, she said.
“I have good hopes,” she said.
When the birds were initially rescued from the tar pit and brought in, she said, “they were stuck to themselves and to the boxes they were in.”
“It’s heartbreaking to see accidents like this occur,” JD Bergeron, CEO of Bird Rescue in Northern California, said in a written statement. “Birds in a changing world face dwindling natural habitat and lack of habitat is a big problem for the wild animals that call Los Angeles home.”
When the initial group of birds was bought in, bird center officials said, they were experiencing severe stress and had developed a condition called capture myopathy, where muscle damage results from extreme exertion and struggling. One bird had a broken leg from the experience.
Canada geese are found in California year-round and are a “natural resident” of the area, Duerr said, and have “learned to live in cities.”
Both of the surviving geese are still recovering from capture myopathy but are slowly regaining the…
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