Birds and Marine Wildlife / 73Berkner questioned the treatment of the birds at the time, which
involved measures such as giving them bread and milk, foods that
birds would never consume naturally, and “medication combina-
tions that would have killed people.” It was, she says, “a new fi eld
with no history or guidelines of care or treatment.”^40 Because of her
nursing background, she had experience in triage and saw the pit-
falls in the existing system.
Although Standard Oil was partially funding the rescue effort,
most of the equipment and supplies were donated. Volunteers pro-
vided labor. The Berkeley Ecology Center initially served as a con-
duit for funding, but after offi cials from Standard Oil argued in
favor of establishing a separate, nonprofi t bird care organization,
in April 1971, the International Bird Rescue and Research Center
(IBRRC) was founded. The new organization, which the founders
still refer to as “Bird Rescue,” moved into space donated by the
Berkeley Humane Society. The group had to house the birds until
September, when they would molt their ruined feathers. Mean-
while, Berkner and others found a niche for themselves. “When the
last birds were released,” Berkner says, “the few of us that remained
decided to continue the organization.”
The founding members were pleased with the number of birds
they had saved but not satisfi ed with the results. They educated
themselves about the work to which they had dedicated themselves.
Berkner recalls, “One of the fi rst and I feel, most valuable things we
did was to institute a literature search in the area of seabirds, their
anatomy and physiology, how they were affected by oil, the use of
medication in aviculture and anything remotely connected to the
problems we had experienced.” When oiled birds arrive at rescue
centers, they are usually highly stressed and exhausted. They may
suffer from hypothermia or have broken bones and other injuries.
The longer they have been exposed to oil, the poorer their chances
for survival. As researchers report,
Experience has shown that the amount of wildlife contam-
ination is not the primary determinant of survivability, but
how long the animal has been exposed. A highly oiled bird