KINGSTON, Jamaica — Parrots, hawks, owls, crocodiles, snakes and other animals displaced by Hurricane Melissa have found a home at the Hope Zoo Preservation Foundation as a team of volunteers and veterinarians work to help them recover enough to be released back into the wild.

Many of the rescued animals are endemic to Jamaica, found nowhere else in the world, including the Jamaican yellow-billed and black-billed parrots, the Jamaican owl and Jamaican boa or yellow snake.

“A lot of the animals either come to us from patrons, people from the public, NEPA [National Environment and Planning Agency] responding to calls or sometimes I have to go out on the road to respond to a call of maybe an injured bird on the ground and we’ll go collect it and bring it back,” Hope Zoo General Curator Joey Brown told Observer Online on Wednesday.

Some of the animals are also illegal pets that have been confiscated, he said.

“We work real closely with the Ministry of Agriculture, with NEPA, with the police as well,” Brown said. “A lot of times, if they go into someone’s house for whatever reason and [the homeowner] has illegal pets, where those animals don’t have to be euthanised, we can bring them here,” Brown explained.

During Observer Online’s visit to the facility, Brown identified animals rescued days and weeks after Hurricane Melissa including a Jamaican parakeet believed to have been thrown from its nest during the storm and a Jamaican black billed parrot, which he described as one of his favorites, citing the striking colour and rarity of the endemic bird.

Caring for the animals is intensive and expensive work, the curator explained.

“Birds are really delicate, and a lot of them have very specific diets,” Brown said, noting that parrots need fruits and vegetables, [and] hawks and owls need mice and baby chicks, and that’s on a daily basis.”

He added that, “usually, their first two weeks here is like an ICU where they are getting daily meds [including] fluids under the skin, usually some kind of painkiller or antibiotics.”

It’s not just the birds.

“If you can think when you go to the veterinarian to just take your dog for a visit, how expensive that is, well we have animals every nearly every day getting that medication, so it adds up. It’s very pricey.”

When the animals arrive at the preservation society, they must be watched carefully in quarantine for at least a month.

“We’ll deworm them, do parasite treatments, we’ll do fecal checks, everything to make sure they’re nice and healthy, ” Brown said.

After that, for birds, there will likely be a period of containment where they are placed in large enclosures as they heal.

“A lot of these birds, whether they come in with an injury or they’re a young bird, before they can be properly released to fly in the wild, they need a good [contained] space to fly and build up those muscles,” Brown explained.

He said this necessitates large enclosures and extended stays, between two to five months, making space a coveted commodity. The curator revealed that they are currently at capacity and preparing proposals for grants for materials to increase their space.

“That’s what you need because we just constantly have these animals coming in and we don’t always have the best ideal places to put them,” he said.

The Foundation is also regularly called in to assist on reptile rescues after weather events.

“After these storms and floodings, crocodiles get displaced and end up, maybe, in someone’s gully or someone’s yard,” Brown said. “So we’ll work with NEPA to go help, respond and maybe relocate that animal to a better spot and, on rare occasions, if the animal looks sick and it’s not probably smart to relocate it, we’ll bring it back to the zoo for rehab and then usually release it a couple months later.”

Acknowledging many people’s inherent bias toward “cute” animals, Brown urged residents to treat all displaced animals with respect.

“When people see birds and cute animals or the furry animals … they feel bad for those but when it comes to snakes and crocodiles? That’s when you get people stoning,” Brown said. “I tell people, ‘hey, I don’t expect you to love these animals but just have some respect for them, they’re part of our Jamaican environment, our Jamaican culture, the crocodiles are on our coat of arms and so you don’t have to love the animal but let’s have some respect and let it be in its natural environment.’”

Jamaicans who come across an animal in need of care or assistance can call the NEPA or Hope Zoo Preservation Foundation