LOS ANGELES — Only two of a flock of 15 wild Canada geese that landed and became trapped in the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles in late July have survived after they were rescued and cleaned off.
Los Angeles Animal Services extricated the birds from the pits on July 31. More than half had died, but the seven that were still alive were given to International Bird Rescue, a nonprofit that specializes in rescuing and rehabilitating birds from oil spills. Of those, only two survived.
After washes for both and a chest graft for one, the birds are on a track to healing. If all goes well, they will be released into the wild in about a month.
“It’s heartbreaking to see accidents like this occur,” said JD Bergeron, CEO of International Bird Rescue, in a news release. “Birds in a changing world face dwindling natural habitat and lack of habitat is a big problem for the wild animals that call Los Angeles home. It is natural for animals to become trapped in the tar, but in a huge city with little wildlife habitat, the lake can look very attractive to animals.”
Famously host to a statue of mammoths succumbing to the tar, the La Brea Tar Pits are an ice age fossil site in the middle of Los Angeles.
