Caring for ailing seabirds at Pacific Wildlife Care

October 10th we had 68 murres come in in a day so it's been yeah somewhere between 20 and 68 oftentimes that's 50 a day and that is the biggest spike of murres we've ever seen at Pacific Wildlife Care. Most of these murres are coming in extremely emaciated, starving. What we think is going on is the the warm ocean temperatures that we've seen all summer because of this developing El Niño has pushed prey fish into colder deeper water or farther away which means that these birds are not able to sustain their body reserves and they're losing body reserves very quickly when they can't find enough prey. Yeah, murres are seabirds and they look kind of like a penguin. They've got a similar black and white tuxedoed look. These birds live most of their life out on the open ocean. It's very unusual for them to be seen on a beach, which is how many people are seeing them right now washed up on beaches. If you find a murre that's on a beach that is a sign that something is going going wrong for that murre. If you see a bird in distress, what do you do? If you're in SLO County, you give Pacific Wildlife Care a call. 805-543-WILD. 805-543-9453. Call the hotline first and then follow their guidance.