I’ve just spent a couple of hours with Simon Thomsett talking about Rosy, a male Crowned Eagle that was brought in for care in 1977 with a broken wing. At that time Simon Thomsett was just a boy – today 32 years later, they are still best of friends.
Crowned eagles are the most powerful African bird of prey and are critically endangered in Kenya. Rosy matured and became one of the most famous breeding eagles in Africa. He married “Girl” in 1992, producing a total of 12 chicks to date. This is the only such breeding and release project in Africa, and released young are already breeding in the wild. Their story is a model for captive breeding of other forest eagles, and is documented in one of our WildlifeDirect blogs http://simonthomsett.wildlifedirect.org . Indeed, the breeding and release of these forest eagles has helped plan and execute similar projects elsewhere, such as with Harpy Eagle release programmes. The pair, now in their thirties are still in good breeding condition but Rosy needs help.
They last bred successfully in mid 2005. In mid 2007 Simon noticed cataracts in both of Rosy’s eyes, and by April 2008 he was having trouble getting around his breeding pen. By June this year he was unable to fly anywhere both his eyes are now totally opaque. Unless treated Rosy will certainly die.
There is only one specialized eye unit for animals in Africa at the Animal Eye Hospital but we cannot send Rosy for the operation as the species is so endangered that Kenyan CITES bureaucracy is too slow for us to respond to the emergency in time. Rosy is rapidly getting worse, and he must be operated before September.
We at WildlifeDirect are doing everything we can to help Simon and Rosy. Eye operations are risky – Rosy will be examined by human eye surgeons on the 8thAugust where his eyes will be measured for intraocular lens so that new lenses can be made in USA and then sent to Kenya. The operation to insert the new lenses is our biggest challenge. We do not have experts in this country to conduct the operation and so we’re helping Simon find the veterinary expertise needed to conduct the cataract operation as soon as possible here in Nairobi.
As you can imagine, this is a risky situation for so valuable an eagle, it could go wrong, he could go completely blind, or even die, and so we are trying to get the worlds best veterinarian to handle the operation.
Please help us support Rosy and restore his eyesight – visit Simons blog and make a donation to help pay for a vet to travel to Nairobi.
Donations made here are
Feb 28th Liza H USD 11.00
2 Comments
Rosy is fascinating. I’ve just been going through Simon’s blog and catching up on older posts and I have a new appreciation for our feathered friends.
Honestly, I haven’t paid much attention to birds until recently when I spotted a tiny wren sitting on a nest in one of the small trees near my apartment. She never left that nest until her eggs hatched, and it was exciting to see those little fuzzy heads peaking above the edge of the nest. About a week and a half ago, I spotted the young birds sitting on branches outside the nest, all feathered and grown up looking. I haven’t seen them since and I hope they’re doing well.
s.
I am Simon’s student and Rosy is one of the Eagles I have visited at least twice in my ‘informal’ lectures with Simon. It pains to know Rosy is in this bad state. Please if you can, help my teacher and study model through this difficulty!