PREVIEW

A branch of the animal rescue organisation, RSPCA, in Queensland, Australia has released dozens of rainbow lorikeets after saving the birds from a paralysis syndrome that caused them to fall from the sky.

Last month, researchers reported that over 200 rainbow lorikeets had been taken into care in northern New South Wales, Australia after hundreds of birds began to fall mid-flight without a known cause.

“A lot of them don't make it because when they come in, they are underweight and malnourished and very sick birds,” Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service (WIRES) Clarence Valley aviation coordinator Robyn Gray told ABC News at the time. “We've got professors in Sydney, Currumbin and Australia Zoo, Sydney Uni, all testing them and no one can really give a definitive answer.”

Named Lorikeet Paralysis Syndrome (LPS), the mystery illness has killed thousands of birds in the area stretching from Bundaberg, Queensland to Grafton, New South Wales since it was first identified in 2010.

Significant falls of lorikeets usually occur between October and June each year, with most severe cases falling between December and February.
RSPCA Queensland wildlife recovery director Dr Tim Portis said the organisation usually treats a few hundred rainbow lorikeets per year, but this year saw 3,850 lorikeets treated or euthanised.

“When they are affected by this disease, they develop a syndrome of progressive paralysis,” Dr Portis detailed. “They lose the ability to fly, eventually they can't walk, they can't blink, and they can't swallow, so they die of starvation and thirst.”

He called 2024 “absolutely the worst year we’ve seen” for the lorikeets.

Nursing a rainbow lorikeet with LPS back to health takes approximately four to eight weeks if the bird is brought in early enough to save.

Professor of Wildlife Health and Conservation David Phalen floated the idea that summer-fruiting plants might be to blame.

“Not all fruits they're eating are necessarily toxic, so it could be a toxin forming inside them, possibly because the (fruit is) going off,” he told the outlet. “Or it could be (the fruit is) being sprayed inadvertently or intentionally with a pesticide or fungicide.”

WIRES avian vet Dr Tanya Bishop noted that usual elements of the rainbow lorikeet diet – including fragile eucalypt blossoms – were being destroyed by heavy rain events, forcing the birds to find other food sources.

“We don't know what other species might be susceptible to this, or if this might be a problem that could even have an impact on human beings,” Dr Phalen added. “We don’t know.”
Dr Portis insisted that scientists knew the disease was not infectious.

Earlier this month, a branch of the RSPCA in Ipswich, Queensland released 48 rainbow lorikeets which had recovered from LPS.

“Today was pretty amazing, we've just dealt with thousands of birds in the past few months, and we really are exhausted,” Dr Portis recalled of the release. “There has been a lot of birds that have had to be euthanised… so to have some that have got through to the other end, then be released, is just incredible.”