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[ News in Brief ]
A Summer of Sludge
Student Rehabs Oiled Birds in Wake of BP Disaster
4 HUMBOLDT MAGAZINE | Spring 2011
Photo courtesy of © BP p.l.c.
WhEN BP’S DEEPWATER
hoRIzoN Rig exploded
in the Gulf of Mexico last
April, it left thousands of
oiled sea birds in its wake.
Last summer, HSU Wildlife
junior Stephany Helbig
joined the rescue and
rehabilitation efforts.
At 20 years old, Helbig
has spent nearly half of her
life caring for animals. “I’ve
been riding horses since I Stephany helbig
was 7, and being a veterinarian
is something I’ve always wanted to do,” she says.
When Helbig entered high school, she volunteered with the Wild-
Care center in San Rafael, Calif. Although her school only required
20 hours of service, Helbig dedicated herself to the center for seven
years as a volunteer, an intern and eventually a paid employee.
“One day, my boss told me I’d been nominated to go to Louisiana,”
Helbig says. “She said, ‘You’ll be working 12- to 14-hour days
with one day off for three weeks minimum.
Once in Louisiana, Helbig experienced long, eventful days. “I
was supervisor of the dry room where the birds come after they’re
washed,” she says. There, she would tube feed the birds Emeraid
—a specially formulated food for critically ill animals—and check
their temperatures. “If I got a bird with a body temperature under
100 degrees, that bird was considered to be in critical condition.”
The center in Louisiana was set up in a large warehouse. “The
whole place had this smell of rotten fish, oil, bird droppings and
Dawn soap,” Helbig says. “The birds would come from ‘Oiled World’
to ‘Wash World,’ to ‘Dry World,’ to ‘Clean World.’ That’s what we
named the different areas in our center.”
For three weeks, Helbig’s world was one of non-stop activity,
feeding birds and checking their temperatures every hour. Then
there was the paperwork, keeping a chart for every animal she
cared for, recording times, temperatures and feedings.
Despite the long days, Helbig enjoyed her work. Birds she cared
for included laughing gulls, white and brown pelicans, snowy
egrets and roseate spoonbills. “You get to see how beautiful and
how powerful they are with your own eyes,” she says.
A northern gannet is cleaned at the Theodore oiled Wildlife
Rehabilitation Center in Theodore, Ala.