Black cockatoo with rare condition taken into care after rejection

July 31, 2024 10:00 PM

"Never seen anything like this": Black cockatoo with rare condition taken into care after rejection by flock. Tweety the yellow-tailed black cockatoo is mostly yellow due to a rare condition. While that has resulted in it being shunned by its kin in the wild, collectors see Tweety as a prize — and that is a problem.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (16 comments total)

WaPo: white crow with the same issues.

I hate how they get rejected for being weird.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:15 PM on July 31 [2 favorites]

Sounds like the apocryphal Painted Bird
posted by a non e mouse at 12:00 AM on August 1

I like that a bird at the sanctuary is helping out.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:42 AM on August 1 [5 favorites]

The desexing made me so sad. Eugenics for birds.
posted by eirias at 4:58 AM on August 1 [1 favorite]

I took it that the desexing was to make him a lot less attractive to thieves, rather than anything else? Its not that they particularly care about the proliferation of the gene concerned if it weren't for the fact that some people are assholes, so I struggle to see it as eugenics for birds.
posted by edd at 6:45 AM on August 1 [13 favorites]

People are terrible. But people are also wonderful. Thank you bird sanctuary for taking care of Tweety!
posted by OrangeDisk at 8:05 AM on August 1 [1 favorite]

I assume the desexing is because he will have to be in human care for the rest of his life, and they are there to rescue native wildlife, not breed it.
posted by tavella at 8:26 AM on August 1 [2 favorites]

wonder if he saw a Puddy Tat.

srsly tho, yes its very sad these birds get rejected. I'm glad Tweety found some care and a new home.
posted by supermedusa at 8:47 AM on August 1

I'm glad they rescued Tweety and made him safe from people who would exploit him. You can't really blame his flock, if he was more visible so are they if they keep him around. Color mutations look cool to us humans but are a real problem if you have to worry about predators (or about prey that you need to sneak up on).

After reading so many people talking about how hard it is to ethically keep birds as pets (especially long-lived ones) I tend to think we should just outlaw the whole thing, except for current birds who need care till they pass, or special cases like Tweety. Let them stay in the wild.
posted by emjaybee at 9:11 AM on August 1 [3 favorites]

Twenty years ago I worked in a pet supply store and there was a woman who would come by with an albino dobermann she had rescued. He was a beautiful dog but albinism was only one of the many, many genetic quirks he had and most of them were less than ideal. She would get upset whenever anyone would comment on how distinct and unique he was because apparently he had been rescued from people who had bred him that way on purpose and his albinism went hand-in-hand with his hip dysplasia and the fact that his insides were riddled with tumors.

Unscrupulous people will happily breed or modify an animal to suffer if it's something they can turn around and sell.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 11:24 AM on August 1 [3 favorites]

(And if they were breeding to bolster wild populations, then indeed they would avoid deliberately introducing deleterious mutations like this. Not because of "eugenics", but because it would be cruel to breed animals for release that had a extra-poor chance of survival, and counter to their attempts to boost the wild population.)
posted by tavella at 1:01 PM on August 1 [1 favorite]

I took it that the desexing was to make him a lot less attractive to thieves, rather than anything else? Its not that they particularly care about the proliferation of the gene concerned if it weren't for the fact that some people are assholes, so I struggle to see it as eugenics for birds.

I think proponents of eugenics would have said similar things. Although the eugenics movement is today seen as a Bond villain level of evil, at the time the proponents believed they were helping humanity and averting suffering. I know that having a special love for the kind of diversity that makes a bird a target is a hard way, but let me have my misplaced idealism about it!!

That said, tavella, you’re quite right that this makes a lot of sense from the standpoint of animal fostering — for the same (non-eugenic) reasons we fix our pets. That does feel better, thanks. My misplaced idealism and I will choose to believe that this is the only thing in play for Tweety!
posted by eirias at 3:28 PM on August 1 [1 favorite]

This might be a good time to point out that humans have been selectively breeding plants and animals to boost or eliminate specific traits for longer than we've had writing and that is not now nor has it ever been eugenics and there are a lot of reasons why equating the two is problematic.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 4:05 PM on August 1 [7 favorites]

I hate how they get rejected for being weird.

Someone should really write a children's book about this.
posted by phunniemee at 6:46 AM on August 2

Someone should really write a children's book about this.

Have to be careful, though. Otherwise it'll be too on the nose.
posted by howbigisthistextfield at 10:22 AM on August 2

... Though it will probably get glowing reviews.

/okay I'm done! I swear!
posted by howbigisthistextfield at 10:27 AM on August 2