Difficulty: Challenger (Level 2)
A volunteer lifts a lifeless bird from a windswept beach in Ukraine’s Odesa, the Black Sea port city where an oil spill has left wildlife struggling to survive.
Odesa’s zoo is determined to rescue birds that survive being coated with oil.
“Birds lose the ability to move because their feathers become coated. They can neither take off nor swim,” zoo director Ihor Biliakov said.
“They lose mobility and freeze very quickly because it’s cold now.”
Many birds were harmed by an oil spill that Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper said happened because of the nation’s ongoing war with Russia. Attacks from Russia damaged storage tanks for sunflower oil at the Pivdennyi port.
The birds squawk loudly as volunteers wash the oil off their bodies from head to toe.
Biliakov said the two species that were harmed the most were the great crested grebe and the horned grebe.
“The great crested grebe are waterfowl that are especially vulnerable to this kind of contamination, such as oil,” he said.
Oil spills are harmful to marine life (see graphic).
Emergency crews put up floating barriers and sent out special boats to control the spill, while the port’s channel was closed for a short time, according to the port’s administration.
Officials said the oil is natural and will break down on its own, but they are still watching and cleaning up to stop it from spreading more.
