{"id":2185302,"date":"2025-01-25T18:00:04","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T17:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=2185302"},"modified":"2025-01-25T08:42:50","modified_gmt":"2025-01-25T07:42:50","slug":"mystery-syndrome-killing-rainbow-lorikeets-and-flying-foxes-leaves-scientists-baffled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/mystery-syndrome-killing-rainbow-lorikeets-and-flying-foxes-leaves-scientists-baffled\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystery syndrome killing rainbow lorikeets and flying foxes leaves scientists baffled"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of rainbow lorikeets and hundreds of flying foxes have been hospitalised in Queensland in the past year with a mysterious paralysis that can affect the animals\u2019 ability to fly, swallow and even breathe.<\/p>\n

Lorikeet paralysis syndrome has struck birds in Queensland and New South Wales since at least 2012, and a similar syndrome was identified in flying foxes five years ago.<\/p>\n

Scientists don\u2019t yet know whether the two syndromes have the same cause, but they overlap geographically and cases occur seasonally, spiking each December and January.<\/p>\n

In 2024, the RSPCA admitted 1,079 flying foxes to its wildlife hospital in Wacol, Brisbane, and nearly 8,000 lorikeets across two facilities, said a wildlife veterinary director at the hospital, Dr Tim Portas.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorically, we would see 2,600 lorikeets and 200 flying foxes in any given year,\u201d Portas said.<\/p>\n

Not all the admissions last year were due to the syndromes but Portas said \u201cthe most common reason that we have lorikeets admitted to us, and certainly that increase with the flying fox [numbers], was predominantly due to paralysis syndrome\u201d.<\/p>\n

The wildlife hospital saw an unusually late peak last February, with 195 lorikeets admitted in a single day, and another spike in December. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen well over 100 animals a day in December,\u201d Portas said.<\/p>\n

Across the border, the NSW Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service (Wires) said it had not yet seen an increase in animals affected by the condition, but it was bracing for a spike in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\"Wildlife
Wildlife vet Tim Portas examines a lorikeet. The paralysis affects the birds\u2019 ability to blink and swallow and can dehydrate them. Photograph: David Kelly\/The Guardian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In both lorikeets and flying foxes, the conditions cause hind leg and flight paralysis. \u201cThey might initially appear weak and unable to fly,\u201d said Dr Alison Peel of the University of Sydney. \u201cThe lorikeets might keep hopping around on the ground, or the flying foxes end up falling low in the branches \u2026 they can\u2019t climb back up again like they normally would.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peel called the syndromes a \u201creally significant welfare issue\u201d, because severely affected animals can lose their ability to blink, swallow [or] breathe, resulting in suffocation or dehydration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe animals that don\u2019t die need total nursing care,\u201d Storm Stanford, a flying fox carer at Wires, said. \u201cYou start off having to use injectable fluids to keep them going long enough before they\u2019re able to use their tongue \u2026 to actually be able to drink [by] themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peel said most animals, if not too severely affected, would survive, requiring several weeks of supportive care to recover and regain flying fitness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thought at the moment is that there\u2019s some common cause,\u201d said Peel, who co-leads the paralysis syndromes working group, which is seeking to identify the culprit. \u201cThere\u2019s no indication that it\u2019s anything spreading from animal to animal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe seem to find it happens in summertime; some years are worse than others, there\u2019s loose association with heavy rain.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be some naturally occurring fungal toxin or bacterial toxin like [botulinum toxin],\u201d she said, suggesting that changing environmental conditions may have increased the toxin to levels not previously present.<\/p>\n

She encouraged anyone who spotted an unwell animal to call their local wildlife rehabilitation group or veterinarian instead of picking it up themselves.<\/p>\n

Pallas said the syndromes presented in a similar way to water fowl affected by botulism, which occurs when the birds inadvertently ingest botulinum toxin. The potent nerve toxin, commonly known as botox, is produced by Clostridium botulinum bacteria.<\/p>\n

This article<\/a> by Donna Lu was first published by The Guardian on 13 January 2025. Lead Image: In both lorikeets and flying foxes, the conditions cause hind leg and flight paralysis. Photograph: Mike Bowers\/The Guardian.<\/i><\/p>\n

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