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companions
A Very Bright Canvas
love to love to love to love to love . . .” rants Billie Peppa, while a friend across the aisle carries on a one-sided phone conversation: “Yeah. . . . OK. . . . What?! . . . You don’t say!” Pita shrieks, “Don’t touch me!” just as Jasmin breaks into an off-key rendition of “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning.” Perhaps disgusted by all the craziness, Socrates mutters to himself, “I’m going to the pool hall for a beer.” A scene from a remake of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest? Not quite, for these inmates aren’t humans; they’re parrots, a few of the nearly 500 birds who live at The Oasis Sanctuary an hour east of Tucson, Arizona. And they’re screeching, squawking, screaming, whistling and chattering like crazy. “It’s flocking time, and there’s a whole lot of communicating going on,” says Sybil Erden, founder and executive director of the sanctuary. “It’s hard-wired behavior. In the wild, they’d be calling the flock together right now to gather for the night. It’s a really social time, and they make one heck of a racket.” But that’s not the only reason for such manic behavior. “A lot of our birds have suffered from separation from their human caregivers,” Erden explains as we stroll past dozens of wire enclosures and aviaries. “Parrots bond for life with their caregiver, just as they do with other birds in the wild. If they lose that human partner, they become confused, scared and even depressed—angry, neurotic and self-destructive.” Depending on the species, parrots can live for up to 80 years, which means they often outlive their caregivers. Avian adoption agencies have found it hard to place older orphaned birds, as well as lame, injured and blind ones, in new homes. Erden created The Oasis Sanctuary as a last stop for parrots that are facing euthanasia because they’re deemed unadoptable. “We take birds who’ve never been
By Roger Toll around other birds in their whole lives and get them reacquainted,” Erden says. “It takes some time for them to learn they are birds, then more time to find suitable mates. We want birds to bond and take care of each other. Birds bond for life, and they are very clear about those they want to be with. It’s not just anyone.” Erden greets each bird by name with coos and high-pitched chatter and, like a school headmistress giving a new teacher a tour, offers asides on the character and behavior of each. “Bunker is mean,” she says about a yellow-naped Amazon, “and has twice broken my finger. It was pretty bloody, too.” Having a nasty disposition is one of the reasons that exotic birds are abandoned. Others include being in the way, screaming loudly, destroying possessions or even being the wrong color for the décor. “Exotic birds are wild, not pets. Until recently, they were never bred as pets,” Erden says. “They are sensitive and intelligent, and can be as moody as a child in his terrible 2s. Without stimulation or games or company, they can become depressed or mean or neurotic. When people get a bird, they usually don’t realize the responsibility that it carries, often for life. It’s so sad to still hear the caregiver’s voice in the bird’s long after they have been abandoned.” In a recent presentation to the Association of Avian Veterinarians, Erden estimated that about 6.5 million U.S. households have about 20 million birds, totals that are growing fast due to the collision of aggressive bird breeders and consumers
It’s harder to get into The Oasis Sanc tuary than into Harvard University. Out of 1,500 requests a year, the foundation can admit only 30 birds.
88 Sky april 2007
photo Courtesy of The Oasis Sanctuary
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Sybil Erden put down her paintbrushes to focus on a new medium and lifework: exotic parrots and their rescue at The Oasis Sanctuary.
companions unaware of how much commitment it takes to care for a bird. But the number that worries Erden even more is the 6 to 8 million birds she estimates are living in more than 2 million baby-boomer homes. “This is a looming crisis,” she says. “They are going to need adoption over the next 15 years, beyond all the normal issues that push people to abandon their birds. . . . If you want a bird, adopting one is the right thing to do.” Walking into the newest aviary, a $60,000 stainless-steel enclosure for one of the smartest of all parrots, the African grays, is like leaving a frat house and entering the hushed halls of an Atheneum, where its venerable members nestle in deep leather chairs. The grays are calm, subdued, each on its own branch of a sprawling tree. Two or three greet Erden, who chats a little with each one. “The African grays are very social, intellectual, serene,” she says, “and they are the most likely to grasp human language. Studies show that they understand numbers, colors, the alphabet. Grays can take our sounds and learn what they mean, then put them together to create more complex words to describe new objects that they haven’t seen before.” A recent study noted that a gray, when seeing an almond for the first time, called it a “cork nut” because it resembled a cork and a nut, and the gray already knew the words for those. “African grays are at the top of the pyramid, but all parrots are smart,” Erden says. “The intellectual difference between a parrot and a chicken is the difference between us and a cow.” Erden launched The Oasis Sanctuary in 1997 in Phoenix. “It was as if I had an invisible sign above my house in Phoenix: ‘Look pathetic and you’ll be fed,’” she says. “My home was full of stray and hurt animals. Then I started working with For the Birds, a small wildlife facility for rescue and rehabilitation. I just
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kept taking in needy parakeets, canaries and cockatiels, so I had to learn how to take care of them. Researching on the Internet made me realize there are a lot of bird issues out there, so I got even more involved.” Three years later, Erden moved the
A Peek at Polly
Sybil Erden, The Oasis Sanctuary’s founder and executive director, gives tours to individ uals and groups for a suggested donation of $10 a person. Call 520-212-4737 or e-mail oasisbirds@hughes.net to arrange a visit. For more information, go to www.the-oasis.org. —R.T. sanctuary to its present location, which today is home to more than 100 species of parrots and cockatoos, along with 25 dogs, 20 cats, five cows, five goats, two horses, two donkeys, two sheep and a number of doves and pigeons. And that doesn’t count the turtles, the tokay geckos and leopard geckos, the bluetongued skinks, the spiny-tailed lizard, the bearded dragon and the various snakes she has in her home, testimony to her weakness for all animals. But Erden didn’t start out knowing that she would become an advocate for feathered friends. She left her Bronx, New York, home in 1967, a precocious artist of 16, to move to the wild art scene of San Francisco, where she attended the San Francisco Art Institute. After
14 years, she relocated to Phoenix to concentrate on her painting. She had a successful career, but by the time she reached her mid-40s and the attendant midlife re-evaluation so many people go through, “I decided, when faced with the crossroad of continuing my artistic career or helping these animals in need, to take care of the animals,” she says. “I can tell you, The Oasis Sanctuary is the largest canvas I’ve ever worked on.” The sanctuary’s 72-acre property and several basic buildings and trailers are owned by its foundation, which garners $450,000 in annual contributions to support its activities. Most workers are volunteers, and the seven salaries paid to staff members amount to a mere $125,000. The rest is, well, for the birds. That said, it’s harder to get into The Oasis Sanctuary than into Harvard University. Out of 1,500 requests a year, the foundation can admit only 30 birds, mainly from adoption programs, government agencies and people who have died or have a terminal illness. “Human hardship is usually the determining factor for birds we can admit here,” Erden says. “When people call, we direct them to really good adoption programs, with the understanding that if they can’t find the right home, they can come here. We have only so much space and money.” As we continue our tour, an almost 3-foot-tall scarlet macaw named Rainbow spreads his wings wide, greeting Erden with “I love you,” then touches his tongue to her lips for half a minute. “It’s a flock greeting,” Erden says, then corrects herself. “No, this is actually a family greeting. It’s more intimate.” At another enclosure, she nuzzles her nose to Skippy’s beak through the wire mesh. “Now, Skippy here is a sweetie,” Erden says. A lesser sulphur-crested cockatoo, Skippy coos back. “She wasn’t so happy when she came, but she has adjusted wonderfully through the help of her mate.” As we turn to go, Skippy says, “Night, night,” in what clearly must be her old mistress’ voice. Sky Contributing Editor Roger Toll has been known to follow up on Socrates’ idea in Park City, Utah.
photo by roger toll
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