A baby cockatoo in Australia was sitting on a power line with some birdie buddies when a bird next to it was electrocuted and engulfed into flames.
While the cockatoo was able to survive the incident, it was severely burned as a result of being next to the poor bird that didn’t make it. When a passerby took notice of the injured critter, he quickly took the animal to a local vet. Because of the severity of the cockatoo’s injuries, it was soon transported to the Perth Zoo where the poor nugget was given specialized treatments by Dr. Peter Ricci.
After recuperating for over a week, the injured cockatoo was finally given the okay to undergo surgery to attach feathers to its burnt wings.
Attaching these new feathers would ensure that it’d be able to fly once released back into the wild.
The technique used during the surgery is known asimping, which is more commonly used on domestic birds that have had their feathers trimmed too short.
Imping requires coating the donor feathers in superglue and using matchsticks to act as quills before attaching them to the dead skin of the bird’s wings.
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Since birds regrow their feathers once a year, when the time comes for the cockatoo to regrow its feathers, the entire process will push out the new ones. But for now, the cockatoo will need them to fly!
It is still recovering after surgery and will have to undergo rehabilitation before going back out into the wild.
Read more: http://www.viralnova.com/cockatoos-new-wings/
