Photo courtesy of Vale Wildlife Hospital & Rehabilitation Centre
Sometimes animals do strange things.
According to this article from NPR, an enterprising seagull got more than he bargained for…
A wildlife hospital in Britain had no trouble spotting — or smelling — this patient. After all, the sea gull had doused itself in a vat of chicken tikka masala. After an exam, two findings emerged: The bird would be fine, and “boy did he smell good!”
That’s the description given by Lucy Kells, a veterinary nurse at the Vale Wildlife Hospital near Tewkesbury, who chronicled the bird’s recovery on Facebook.
Speaking to Wales Online — the bird was found “at an undisclosed curry factory in Wales,” the site says, before being brought to the animal hospital — Kells says the bright-orange gull sparked a range of strong feelings, from sympathy and concern to hunger pangs.
The consensus about how this day-glo gull came to be, Kells says, is that he was picking out pieces of chicken and fell into a vat — which was outside and, for some reason, had been left uncovered.
“He would normally have been able to take off from water but the curry was too thick and gloopy,” she says.
Luckily for all involved, the bird hadn’t been soaking in the sauce for long before he was rescued. But while the Vale hospital says the cleanup was fairly easy, the gull will have to remain a captive for long enough to allow his feathers to regain the natural oils they lost in the cleaning process.
It seems like a case of bad korma! Below is a video of the gull undergoing his cleanup. And he looks naan too pleased. 😀
Perhaps, after his five minutes of fame, he’ll become a member of the Spice Gulls. 😀
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