Toni Painting is a taxi driver who saves these endangered birds and then sets them free: at night they confuse the asphalt for the ocean
Every evening, Toni Painting takes a stroll through the streets of the city of Kaikoura in New Zealand, looking for puppies of Berta di Hutton, endangered seabirds that crash into the streets during the night because they confuse the shiny asphalt. with the sea.
The Hutton's Shearwater is a medium-sized seabird of the Procellariidae family that lives in Australia and New Zealand. A bird that is on the IUCN red list is considered endangered because it is estimated that few colonies remain. For this reason the taxi driver Toni Painting, in an attempt to make a contribution to the species, goes in search of Berta di Hutton's chicks every night, which end up on the asphalt because confused by the fog. Stunned on the ground, these chicks are at risk of being killed, so the taxi driver retrieves them, takes them to a wildlife rehabilitation center for first treatment which in turn, once healed, takes them back to the sea.
The characteristic of this bird is that despite being marine, it nests and raises its young in the mountains, almost 1200 meters high. Since the 60s, their breeding colonies have shrunk from eight to two and experts are convinced that the fact that many end up on asphalt also plays a decisive role. Little beginners, have to face the journey from the mountain to the sea and on foggy and moonless nights, they end up exchanging the bitumen with the ocean. Once landed in a swoop, the little ones are unable to walk or move and are often run over or become food for dogs and cats.
“I go out half an hour after sunset. Then I go out every hour until half past midnight, ”said Painting, who keeps boxes in his taxi so he can save the chicks that are beautiful, fluffy, but quite heavy.
@Supplied/ Hutton’s Shearwater Charitable Trust
The man said more than 200 birds were rescued on his busiest night, with other volunteers working until dawn. Ted Howard is the president of Hutton's Shearwater Charitable Trust and explains that there are many volunteers like Painting who patrol the streets to save animals.
“They are really fascinating and weird. There used to be so many here, ”she says, echoing Erica Wilkinson of the Department of Conservation, explaining how these birds are increasingly threatened. “Reversing the decline in our biodiversity really requires everyone's effort, together we can change things,” explains Wilkinson.
Once the birds have been rehabilitated, they are released into the water. “I love these little ones, so it comes from my heart, to help them”, she glosses her Painting.
Source: The Guardian
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