SAY hello to Camden’s $10,000 bird.This powerful female peregrine falcon was released back into the wild at Tahmoor on Friday after being treated at the University of Sydney’s Avian, Reptile and Exotic Pet Hospital at Brownlow Hill for injuries it sustained in a fight with another bird in March.
Hospital veterinarian David Phalen said the bird was given antibiotics and had wounds to its wings and back sutured shut after it was found in a shed at Tahmoor on March 21. He said the drugs and other treatments the bird received at the hospital totalled $5000 before it was transferred to Taronga Zoo for rehabilitation.
Taronga Zoo senior veterinarian Dr Larry Vogelnest, who lives at Cobbitty, said the falcon received physiotherapy and strengthening treatment at the zoo. ``We have large enclosures here and the main thing was to make sure it was flying as much as possible to build up its strength,’’ he said.
Dr Vogelnest said the six-week rehabilitation the falcon underwent at the zoo would have cost $5000 to $6000, making this bird of prey a big investment for the zoo and the animal hospital.
Dr Vogelnest said he was pleased with the bird’s recovery.
``The bird needed to have its strength built up at the zoo before it was released so that it is able to hunt and feed itself in the wild,’’ he said.
Taronga Zoo spokesman Mark Williams said peregrine falcons were a relatively rare visitor to the zoo’s rehabilitation facility, with only one being admitted every two or three years.
He said the birds’ numbers were relatively healthy in Australia and they were territorial animals, staking out a patch for hunting.
The peregrine falcons can reach speeds up to 320km/h in a dive.
The bird’s release follows our report on another peregrine falcon treated at the Brownlow Hill animal hospital in 2009 after it was impaled on a television antenna in Bradbury.
Dr Phalen said a female wombat brought to the hospital in May had also made a remarkable recovery after earlier fears she was not eating enough to recover from a broken leg and feed a joey in her pouch.
