My friend, returning from a swim, looked bemused. “I thought I saw an albatross flying along the cliff,” she said, “but perhaps it was a pelican. Do you have pelicans on Aegina?”
“Oh, yes,” I said, “and storks and flamingoes and swans and owls and herons and hawks and eagles. They all live together just down the road from here at the Hellenic Wildlife Hospital. They have all been injured in one way or another (80 percent shot by hunters) and are recovering. There are hundreds to be returned to the wild, but many which cannot, or choose not to leave, are fed and cared for in the park created for them. The largest animal is a blind cormorant which begs everyone for a fish. It is the only centre in Europe which treats pelicans and endangered species.”
Not only birds are taken in here. There are also other injured animals, a fox with a broken leg (run over by a car, but sent in .by the driver for surgery), two wolf cubs whose mother was shot, and several mature ones now living peaceably in Aegina’s former prison. Among recent patients, logger-head turtles – the endangered Caretta caretta – sadly died of their injuries, severe blows on the head.
Last autumn a young striped dolphin was washed up on an Aegina beach. It was suffering from murbilivirus and had an immune deficiency. It was cared for in the swimming-pool of the Hotel Danae, next door to the Hospital, by devoted helpers led by Terry, a Californian girl with some experience of dolphins. They called it Max and gave it antibiotics and vitamins, encouraging it to swim a little, and sharing watches, stayed with it night and day, as it showed signs of distress when left alone. Unfortunately, however, it died on the fourth day. It was one of the first around the shores of Greece to fall victim to the virus, now reaching epidemic proportions and the only one to live for a little while in a friendly environment. It was visited by numerous people, including groups of school children, and received a wide press coverage.
Another distressing incident, which took place last summer, was the dastardly shooting of a convalescent stork, with an airgun at close range. It had become well-known in the district for it was used to humans and it had no fear of them – unfortunately. It walked home to the Centre with a broken wing, and died two or three days later, much mourned, not least by its mate who would not return to the nest.
The Centre originated as the result of efforts made by Yiannis Poulopoulos when an agricultural student in Thessaloniki where his thesis was on the care of maimed birds. With the help of Philip Dragoumis and his wife Maria, the Dragoumis family home in Aegina was turned into a sanctuary in 1988. The Hellenic Wildlife Hospital was established two years later. It has intensive care rooms in a cool basement which opens onto a deep, disused quarry, an ideally enclosed space open to the sky above.
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More than 40 hawks are recovering there now, as well as a nearly blind honey buzzard, and several other wild fowl. Beyond the house is an enclosed garden with two large pools for the growing number of birds which cannot fly and find security amongst their own kind. Some of them have mated and raised their young, and these are returned to the wild when they are ready.
A number of storks which would be free to join migratory flocks passing overhead to Africa, have stayed in Aegina, finding sanctuary there. The Electricity Company (DEI) has helped by erecting large metal baskets on the top of several poles for the storks to nest in, compensating in a way for power lines being one of the hazards faced by big birds.
Philip, Maria and Yiannis work continuously (and are over-worked during holidays and the hunting season) with only two full-time assistants. A number of part-time volunteers, however, feed and medicate the sick, clean out cages, prepare newly-arrived patients for professional treatment and surgery by local vets. They also welcome visitors: the press, school parties, and foreign specialists. This is a necessary interruption to their daily round because of the importance of spreading the word about the catastrophic effects that our modern life and technology have on nature and the ecology.
In Greece alone, millions of wild animals are killed annually by indiscriminate shooting by hunters – 350,000 of them licensed and as many more operating without licenses, during the long ‘open’ season, from 20 August to 10 March, a period which also covers the birds migratory period. Birds found shot have marker rings from six or eight northern European countries.
Others are caught for ‘fun’; song birds trapped and kept illegally in tiny cages in dark shops or in the blazing sun till they die. Some rare birds are shot deliberately to be embalmed to decorate a shop or home, an eagle or a heron or even a flamingo, the latest in fashion. Private and often badly-run municipal zoos account for further misery and slow death. In one, a lion observed by visitors to be sick died two days later. Only then was it noticed by the official attendants when they came to clean out its cage. A second one died later of malnutrition.
Greece has been singled out as having the worst ecological record in the European Community, but due mainly to dedicated individuals, organizations dedicated to animal welfare are slowly coming into being. The first of these was the Hellenic Animal Welfare Society, founded by Reginald and Eleanor Close in 1959 during their term in Athens at the British Council. Over the decades it helped innumerable dogs and cats, mules and donkeys suffering ill-treatment and neglect. It is now opening a shelter outside Athens. Other, smaller groups also look after stray dogs and cats. The loggerhead turtles of Zakynthos are protected to enable them to breed in peace, as are the monk seals, and half-hearted attempts have been made to save the few remaining bears of Greece.
Now birds have their champions, and the first true hospital for rehabilitating injured wild creatures. Every year nearly 2000 are received at the Wildlife Hospital from the furthest corners of Greece. A network of cooperation has been established with such organizations as the port authorities, forestry departments and municipalities, as well as members of the public who volunteer to see to the timely despatch to the Centre of any injured wild animals found in their districts. Volunteers are also instructed in first aid, and how to prepare the patients for transport. Others arrange slide shows. Wide publicity has been given in Greece to the activities of the Hospital in Aegina, which includes bringing pressure to bear on the State to enforce and improve existing laws (specifically the EC Birds Directive 79/409) which are flagrantly flouted.
This chick was born of maimed parents.
The majority of injured birds received at the Hospital are of officially protected and even endangered species. (A recent arrival is a splendid black swan, originating in Australia). All have been shot and no action is ‘ taken to bring the offending hunters to book. It is a lucrative trade and many blind eyes are turned towards it. Of the 400 species of wild birds in Greece, only 35 may be officially hunted. Included among the officially protected species are buzzards, of which there are now 200 in the Aegina Hospital, whose maintenance is supported by the mayor. There are 14 eagles including a Golden eagle, a Short-toed, a Booted and four Spotted and Lesser-Spotted varieties. Endangered species received at the Hospital include the Eleonora f alcon, ten at present under treatment, one sociably living in the house, and 12 returned to the wild. A Banellis eagle, found with a broken wing in a school yard on Andros, recovered after two weeks of treatment, and was recently returned to its mate living nearby the school, amidst the cheers of the pupils.
Wolves are not protected in Greece as in other countries of the European Community, and foxes have a price on their heads in most districts. Wolves living in the Aegina prison are as friendly as tame dogs; they even dance with their attendants.
Other hazards facing wild life in all ‘developed’ countries include poisoning – either by pesticides or by poisoned baits, – accidents resulting from flying into power lines, being run over by fast-moving vehicles, and being trapped in forest fires. Numerous birds drop dead from exhaustion during migration from Europe to Africa, crossing the Greek mainland and islands, due to a lack of suitable habitats amid growing urbanization.
The cost of running the Aegina Wildlife Hospital is around 600,000 drachmas a month, and expenses mount as improvements are made. Payment for foodstuffs often comes out of the pockets of the resident couple who do not even have a van to collect sick animals, relying on a bicycle and a motor bicycle, and help from volunteers. Financing is received in part from the following: the Bagion Foundation (a charity devoted to the preservation of the Greek heritage), a third of the total; the World Wildlife Fund for Nature; the Greek Animal Welfare Fund in England (an extension of the Hellenic Animal Welfare Society) and from private individuals and institutions. One school raised 100,000 drachmas.
Nevertheless, further financial aid is urgently needed. Contributions can be made to the National Bank of Greece, account number: 241/745090-75, or to the Hellenic Wildlife Hospital at 42, Nikos Kazantzakis Street, 180 10 Aegina. (Tel. 0297-22882).
Unless more is done, and done quickly, for the wild life of Greece, the pelican and many species of birds and animals will become as rare as the albatross or as dead as the dodo.
