RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – A deer took flight in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, spreading its wings and soaring over a river after veterinarians saved it from near death by removing a plastic cup attached to its throat and sealing its throat.
The effort to save the bird has caused an uproar in Brazil over plastic pollution for wildlife in a city known for its forested mountains overlooking the ocean’s capital.
As its cage was opened, the giant hesitated for a moment before emerging and leaping into the air, its gray-white wings carrying it over the river in Rio’s Recreio dos Bandeirantes area.
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“God willing, there won’t be any plastic or cups on the road,” said Jeferson Pires, a veterinarian at the wildlife center who first saw the poor animal this month and wrote about its plight on social media.
The imprint of a 200-ml (6.7-oz) guarana-flavored drink was clearly visible on the heron’s throat before it was captured last Friday. The video showed it struggling without picking up the cup with its orange beak.
“What we have seen today with this heron, in these two weeks, is how these animals have been affected by plastic,” said environmentalist Isabelle de Loys after the bird was released.
The blockade prevented food, and would have led to starvation in a few days without surgical intervention, Pires said.
A carnivorous cobra was once seen vomiting up a fish it could not swallow because of the cup. Pires said that the wounds on the long neck of this bird were probably caused by a failed attempt to eat such food, making it smaller.
Following Pires’s early writings, the deer became an environmental symbol. Its saga drew headlines from major newspapers and broadcasters in Brazil, and sparked outrage online about the damage caused by single-use plastics.
After the trophy surgery, Pires said he wanted to release the beautiful bird back into the wild.
We saw no reason to keep holding him,” he said.
The bird, known to scientists as the Cocoi heron, is the largest species of heron found in Latin America, closely related to the great blue heron.
With their habitat extending from Panama to the southern tip of South America, these birds weigh up to 3 kg (7 lbs) with a wingspan of about 40 cm (16 inches).
(Reporting by Sergio Moraes; Writing by Fabio Teixeira; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Saad Sayeed)