Feeding and Cleaning

Volunteers, Feeding and Cleaning

During the three months of the rehabilitation effort several thousand volunteers helped in a number of ways. At any one time about 400 volunteers were needed simply to feed and clean the penguins.

Specialist volunteers (zoo keepers, vets, etc) came from all over the world and many tourists gave up days of their holidays to call in for a few hours hard labour.

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When the penguins arrive at the rehabilitation centres they were soon given a dose of activated charcoal to mop up the oil that they had ingested. Oil has a number of bad effects for penguins - it clogs up their feathers and they can lose their waterproofing, but more importantly when they try to preen they ingest the oil and it causes all sorts of problems with ulcers, and can affect reproductive organs. Their eyes are particularly prone to damage by oil.

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The penguins need to be fed to increase their strength before the trauma of being washed - so teams of volunteers were kept busy simply feeding thousands of hungry penguins. Wild penguins such as these catch their fish underwater and will not take fish offered to them on land, so they have to be force fed for the first weeks.

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When the penguins are strong enough they are washed using mild detergents - great care has to be taken in the first wash to remove heavy spots and to clean the eyes.

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Many birds need a second wash before all the oil is removed and they can move on to the next stage when they build their strength back up and waterproof their feathers.