This Is Why Birds Are So Affected by Oil Spills

It takes a bit more than just soap and water to save a bird that has been in an oil spill, but the experts at International Bird Rescue are more than up for the challenge.
» Subscribe to Seeker! bit.ly/subscrib...
» Watch more ReWild! bit.ly/rewildpl...
» Visit our shop at shop.seeker.com
We have all seen images of birds affected by spills. Saving a bird that has been in an oil spill is a meticulous process to restore the incredible waterproofing capabilities of bird feathers so that the bird can be returned to the wild and survive.
We’ve been using our planet’s rivers, lakes and oceans to ship crude oil from place to place since the beginning of oil, and while this is an effective way to transport large quantities of petroleum, the method runs the risk of oil spills-events that have wreaked havoc on marine ecosystems.
Experts at International Bird Rescue aspire to rescue and rehabilitate the birds who have been victims of oil spills and the team has saved thousands of birds, cleaning and healing them to fly another day.
Find out exactly why oil spills are so damaging to seabirds in this ReWild.
#oilspill #birds #animalrescue #birdrescue #rehabilitation #animals #marinelife #science #seeker #rewild
Experts Disagree On Value Of Cleaning Oily Birds
www.npr.org/te...
“Since oil started gushing into the Gulf of Mexico over two months ago, we've all probably seen images of birds covered in black goo and of wildlife experts carefully cleaning, rehabilitating and finally releasing them back into the wild. It's a small but very visible part of the huge story about the effects of all that oil on all kinds of animal life, and it's a matter of debate.”
Waterbirds and a Changing Global Environment
www.bird-rescu...
“Many experts believe that critical hardships faced by pelicans, murres, and loons could be related to environmental shifts caused by warming oceans, pollution, collapsing fish stocks, and harmful algal blooms.”
King eider dies 16 years after rescue from oil spill
www.adn.com/an...
“It's a big deal to know the duck lived for 16 years, at the far upper range of its life span, because so little data on the long-term survival of such birds exists, Holcomb said.
Rescuers also contend the recovery of the king eider offers at least anecdotal proof that the cost and effort of rehabilitating oiled birds pays off, something critics have long questioned.”
____________________
Species of all shapes and sizes, as well as the ecosystems where they exist, are on the brink of disappearing forever. But, we don’t have to let that happen. Seeker travels the world interviewing the researchers, engineers, scientists and adventurers who are dedicating their lives to saving, preserving and protecting the most vulnerable plants, animals, people and places on Earth.
Seeker empowers the curious to understand the science shaping our world. We tell award-winning stories about the natural forces and groundbreaking innovations that impact our lives, our planet, and our universe.
Visit the Seeker website www.seeker.com
Seeker on Facebook / seekermedia
Seeker on Twitter / seeker

[@waylontmccann]

Great episode, when I was a kid they never illuminated what the oil did to sea birds, we were just told it was "bad". Facts like the ones presented here, help fill in the knowledge gap that others have been walking around with for a lifetime. Thanks Seeker, keep it up!

[@2-dsynctium773]

Whenever I see people help animals, I can't help but think that in the animals mind, they're like "this is it, I'm going to die here- wait, what? They're bathing me?"

[@juicemeister1984]

Ok which agent typed this. Bet its david...

[@vaszgul736]

@@juicemeister1984 the agent appointed to make sure animals die ofc

[@azhari7968]

You forgot to change your youtube account to comment again huh, David?

[@bobbyd.roberson5588]

I worked on the 2010 Deepwater Horizon clean up in the gulf and I'll never forget driving back to my hotel on Dauphin Island and seeing a pelican on the side of the road flopping around helplessly, drenched completely in oil. It's a lot more of a gut punch about what humans are doing to the world when you see something like that in person.

[@Master_Therion]

That guy you interviewed from the International Bird Rescue inspired me so much I wrote a haiku: Saving birds from crude, Who's feathers are stuck and glued He's an awesome dude.

[@Tilofus]

That is really awesome :D

[@vincenoname]

that is really good keep up the epic haikus they are very cool

[@travisroth]

"Don't hug that Pelican!" words to live by

[@keithburchett3245]

Yes to get to a test to the animals it hurt you real bad cuz you adapt to them and want to always be their friends but it's just a job you have to learn to help them and let them go in the wild where they belong

[@keithburchett3245]

So so don't hug the pelicans laughing out loud

[@pg2116]

That's a great coverage on a very bad accidents

[@CodeLeeCarter]

#Accidents?... more like #Negligence,... Caused by the Pursuit of Profit!

[@pg2116]

@@CodeLeeCarter yeah man This is what we do for our profit😔😔😔

[@DeviantDeveloper]

@@CodeLeeCarter The pursuit of profit got you all your products, phone and internet connection. If you don't want profits to be pursued go live in a cave.

[@pg2116]

@@DeviantDeveloper nahhh bro 😁 I mean that the oil carriers must need to take precautions who don't need necessary things😆😅

[@Didnt_ask69]

The Deviant Developer IDW Podcast drown in oil

[@pyronymph-868]

"Oh, it's the cutest thing ever....DON'T HUG THAT PELICAN!"💗 Thank you for keeping it wild!!

[@stevepashley795]

Being a bird lover, thank you for posting this. It's wonderful to know that people like you are caring for them. Thanks from Australia

[@drendelous]

amazing human beings

[@KeiichiLe]

Yeah they didnt sit there and blast oil gas, and blame people about the obvious. Full measures for recovery efforts.

[@campbellaviation7289]

yes cuz we totally exploded an oil rig on purpose

[@Christian988.]

This is good to know that you can help the poor animals which get caught up in the oil spills.

[@madrx2]

FSO Nabarima Google it everyone. Someone needs to take accountability and salvage it before it ends up spilling ten times as much oil as the Exxon Valdez in the Caribbean.

[@silverink1824]

Hugging the Pelican would be the hardest thing for me to not do

[@kaleidojess]

That’s an amazing job.

[@MrAhmed42069]

Don't ask for people like them just be a person like them

[@wagerekairari393]

Amazing! Not all superheroes wear capes.

[@user-jt6ej7vh2p]

*"The only solution to pollution is a people's humane revolution!"* ~ _Bobby Seale_

[@masamune5710]

DON’T HUG THAT PELICAN-

[@anjelpatel36]

Oh hi. Here's your attention.

[@kabeersahu3017]

I don't like Birds suffer like that They are the most beautiful Creatures on the Planet! "And the most Cutest"

[@cabbyjack9071]

Yeah!😥

[@kabjagsahu1164]

It is indeed 'depressing' to see them suffer!😥

[@Parapresdokian]

Thanks!

[@geraldyudha8911]

#keepitintheground

[@jponz85]

God bless these people🙏

[@jjc5475]

don't hug that falcon! that was kinda funny haha.

[@deedelta9263]

*Pelican

[@rhajneystephenson4669]

There's a large ship that is currently at a great risk of tipping over, spilling millions of gallons of oil into the Caribbean Sea. Please help me spread the word! We need help!

[@Hunter-nr5iu]

VOTE!

[@bvec97]

I learned so much from this, please keep em comin 🙏🏻❤️

[@AVA-hu4yf]

Have you heard of Petroleum Remediation Product? Its a powder developed by NASA that is exceptional at absorbing oil, even removing it from birds feathers.

[@americanv8ss]

When will you finally acknowledge that the volume is set too low in all of your videos? It's usually off by -10 dB.

[@webforder4201]

Maybe that is done of purpose

[@mercury0855]

This is why we need to invest in fossil fuel alternatives and commit to them. Whether it’s too late or not is irrelevant, we must showcase the best part of humanity: innovation. Not simply for innovations sake, but to assert that we are both benevolent and responsible stewards of our environment.

[@TracyD2]

I love animals 😭

[@thoughte2432]

Don't hug that pelican 😑

[@tylerduff4590]

This should be a 2 second video of a guy stepping into frame saying “Because it’s oil!”.

[@trentmorrison6074]

I always thought the reason why they harm birds is because oil is denser then water making the birds too dense to both lift up them selfs and the oil soaked in them. Making them unable to fly and sink possibly. Or be trapped on the sea for a predator to get them. Didnt think it was that.

[@mr.personhumanson6871]

The only bird acceptable to be covered in oil is Fried chicken

[@gintokikintoki4965]

Damn, that’s deep

[@hwinangkoso]

Fried

[@ashutoshbhushan6107]

One day you be the one who's getting fried

[@harshvithlani9399]

Absolutely not, shame on people who cause harm to birds and animals. Become veg

[@simplyruben3184]

@@harshvithlani9399 studies have shown plants have senses... so basically it too *could* be viewed as a form of life. talk about irony.

[@Noah_Zion]

Must save birbs!

[@rheaa58]

Great

[@Shaden0040]

The ships don't have big oil spills now, the oil wells do.

[@usmanhassan2736]

can i please use this for environmental advocacy in nigeria (Creating awearness and fighting corruption)

[@6torino9]

"Birds covered in oil are easier to cook " - Sal G

[@noru8360]

noooooo!

[@azharimran1969]

Im still a kid, but if theres one thing I know; WE NEED TO INVEST MORE IN RENEWABLE SOURCES OF ENERGY.

[@campbellaviation7289]

pretty hard to do but it’s gonna take some time

[@TheCuriousGuyYT]

*Random Informative Fact* : In Switzerland it is illegal to own just one guinea pig !! ~ Facts by Curious JB

[@tbraghavendran]

@Jenny Widmer Why such a law in your country ?

[@Bshwag]

what if the peican hugs you?

[@gnvw]

I hope oil companies are penalized for destroying the world

[@moedalgarny]

oil corps : *chuckels*

[@oghomelesskid]

This is why oils spills are so affected by oils spills....... huh?? Ohhh..... thanks 🧠

[@nehalsongs1170]

🦅+🛢️= ☠️

[@alichohan1999]

السَّلاَمُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ ! جزاك الله خيرا !

[@tourtravel2624]

Do the oil companies also help? Because they make money and the problem is theirs

[@freezedriedzombi8242]

Definitely not. All they care about is money

[@lkgaero2154]

❤️❤️👍

[@ucngominh3354]

.

[@god_beast_bombplaying856]

What about Turbines and Solar Panels. Those kill 35% to 40% of all bird deaths even eagles.

[@danielmoelders7290]

How do Solar Panels kill birds?

[@godrilla5549]

I'm just here for the chicks

[@faris.arifin]

Poor birds 😭

[@robintoonen8515]

An other reason why you should not pump up dino juice

[@VICTORMH714]

Birds covered in oil are easier to cook.

[@miss.bitchswerve6329]

money over nature :(

[@suptumberlumbertumberlumbe9305]

Birds aren’t real though

[@sweiland75]

Maybe it's time to stop using fossil fuels. Maybe we should make serious investment in electric vehicles like Teslas.

[@ThreeToedRooster]

If I could kill humanity I would do it.

[@djash7161]

Let’s buy Electric Vehicles stop the dependency on OiL

[@aintnoslice3422]

Because they are weak, and the weak will not survive the winter.

[@yufengyan]

Subscribe to yufeng yan

[@liebendeinsam]

Where is hat Got that flood the world to reset human cruelty? Kkk

[@stiritup4663]

Try salt and pepper instead of soap and water.

[@v.prestorpnrcrtlcrt2096]

A new threat presents itself every day and it's called Trump

[@harzheikrujam6537]

OK I am second

[@hedonisticzen]

Hmm if we could just get our oil domestically and transfer it through pipelines *eyes the native Americans protesting it*

[@fasteddie7997]

But it is okay to throw medical waste in to the oceans. Oil spills are not as frequent as you think or are told about, unlike garbage dumping in the oceans that is every day occurrence

[@Zacharyswansonchannel]

Audio level is soooooooo low...

[@churchelbenalla5624]

I hope Humans could go extinct

[@jagadishgospat2548]

That dislike who did it. find him and bring him to me on Titan.

[@CBC460]

Oil is evil

[@VariantAEC]

Big oil allowed you to make your comment about how bad it is. It also is likely why you're living so comfortably. The more you know.

[@yarimapovedaalvarado]

I feel like if Trump gets reelected the Exterminator will arrive from some future time and tell us that he is the beginning of the end of the world. Please make sure you vote in this coming election. Your vote matters. Please vote, do it safely

[@MK-ro7ee]

Haha 6:53

[@hassanabdellatief5290]

I'm a bird

[@bigpennington1]

Disgusting

[@bdr420i]

If we're not going to stop the pollution, what if we leave them on their own and see what natural selection will produce maybe oil tolerating birds and wild life 😅 just thinking

[@VariantAEC]

Or birds and wildlife that just learn to avoid these hazards? Animals that are repulsed by the smell of the oil-tainted dead or struggling animals. Birds that avoid landing in black and/or iridescent waters that smell like crude. Evolution doesn't just manifest in physiological changes. Animals might just get smarter about avoiding our accidents. And let's be real here ocean oil spills aren't an everyday thing.

[@VariantAEC]

@Rapid Evo No they don't. The effects last for a couple decades before things largely return to normal. Oil isn't forever, it breaks down it also spreads out and sinks to the sea floor whether we do anything about it or not animals on the surface are only effected for a short time and land isn't effected much by oil spills. oceanservice.noaa.gov/podcast/mar14/mw122-exxonvaldez.html Gary Shigenaka a NOAA biologist had this to say during a podcast about Exxon Valdez accident available at the link above: _"And slowly but surely, there list of impacted resources has been switching from one column, impacted, to another column, recovered. And most recently, they've moved a couple of persistent unrecovered resources -- and that would be sea otters and harlequin ducks-from the 'not recovered' column to the 'recovered' column. So that's good news but we've still got a handful of resources that remain in the 'not recovered' column, including the orcas I mentioned. The short answer to the question, I think, is because not everything has moved over to the recovered column, then you can't really say that Prince William Sound has recovered." So there are still some things that haven't recovered 25 years after the accident. _"It's in some ways encouraging to see that the environment can rebound from something like a major oil spill, but it is still a little distressing that we can't just say 25 years after the fact that things have recovered completely."_ He continues _"Nature has pretty much on its own-I mean we did some good with the clean up but the estimates of how much oil that our clean up efforts removed from the environment versus the amount of oil that was naturally degraded or removed from the environment, it's pretty discouraging in terms of the scale of the efforts that we posed during the spill. It comes out somewhere between 10-15 percent of the total oil spilled was recovered by our clean up efforts. So the natural environment pretty much does the job on its own. We can help a little bit, and I think we can make a big difference for highly sensitive areas, but for the most part we're just a footnote to oil spill clean up from the environment overall."_ So it takes 30 or so years for near full recovery and we didn't really help much along according to th expert opinion of Gary Shigenaka. 30 years is a while to wait but nature cleans up our messes even when we can't. The best move is to make less of a mess and as I said we don't make them everyday or month or even every year. It would be nice if we could go more than a decade or two consecutively without any major oil spills though.

[@a.s.8972]

People are literally dying in streets of all major cities in the USA and you are worrying about birds?? Don’t get me wrong, what humans did to birds with oil spills is wrong and what you are doing is the right thing to do. But on the list of priority, shouldn’t fellow American HUMANS come first?? Fix humanity before you look at other species!

[@danielmoelders7290]

You do realize that our survival depends on Animals. And, to be fair, they do a lot on Humans too. I cant blame them for taking a break from all our shit.

[@a.s.8972]

@@danielmoelders7290 you’re right, but I still look at it like imagine showing up to a deadly accident scene with band aids attempting to fix it all.. while I know that this is important, I still believe that in the list of importance this should not even make the top 1000 things to fix the world.

[@danielmoelders7290]

@@a.s.8972 Guess your right too. But I think its important to show the horiffic consequences that some of our actions have. And more important, to show people with such curage and engagement.

[@suptumberlumbertumberlumbe9305]

People dying in the streets are affected by this having to breathe the toxic air