Something really sad happened on July 31st when a group of wild Canada Geese accidentally landed in the sticky La Brea Tar Pits. The birds got hurt and had burns, and sadly, not all of them made it.
There were 15 geese that went into the pit, and brave people saved seven. They took six of the geese to Bird Rescue’s Los Angeles Wildlife Center to help them get better.
Dr Regan Dunn, who helps at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, felt really sad seeing the animals stuck. “I never saw something like this before, and it’s really, really rare for it to be this bad,” she said.
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It’s really hard and also kind of dangerous to save animals from the pit. That’s why, when they found the geese, they quickly called the Los Angeles Animal Services to help. Sadly, five of the geese that they tried to help didn’t make it, but two are getting better at the centre. One of them is really hurt.
Rebecca Duerr, who knows a lot about helping birds, said the tar is like really sticky oil that hurts the birds’ skin a lot. She had to do a special thing called a “skin graft” on one bird to help it. They’re not sure if it will work, but they’re trying their best.
Dr Dunn said this almost never happens, but sometimes animals accidentally get stuck in the tar. They have a fence around the Lake Pit to try to stop it from happening too much.
“Taking care of animals and nature is super important,” Dr Dunn said. “We really care about these things.“
This kind of accident has been happening for a really, really long time, even more than 60,000 years. Even though it’s really sad, the good thing is that people acted fast to help the geese as much as they could.
