LAS VEGAS (AP) — Katherine Eddington was driving in North Las Vegas last week when she thought she saw a big black bird carrying a banana fly across the intersection.
But after a closer look, she realized it was a toucan — a tropical bird native to rainforests in Central and South America known for their large, colorful bills.
“They’re beautiful birds, so being able to see something like that so close to home was fascinating,” said Eddington, who recognized the bird from social media and contacted animal rescue.
That toucan is named Sam, and he has been living in the area since November, when a resident posted online that he'd escaped from his cage. After surviving the Las Vegas desert for months, Sam has captivated community birding groups, with people posting occasional sightings around town.
A local rescue group has been trying to catch him for months — and the clock is ticking.
“I’m really worried about him,” said Skye Marsh, president and co-founder of SouthWest Exotic Avian Rescue. The Las Vegas-based group has spent hours searching for him, only to find the bird 50 feet (about 15 meters) up in a palm tree, limiting rescue options. They have not been in touch with the owner, she said.
Las Vegas is not a good environment for a toucan to be in the wild with its too-hot summers and cold winters, said Donald Price, a professor and biologist at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas who studies how winged animal species adapt to different environments.
Marsh, who has two toucans of her own, said Sam is starting to show signs of struggle. His eyes are sunken in, and the skin around his beak is starting to get discolored, she said.
Sam likely lived off figs and pomegranates from trees in the Los Prados neighborhood, located about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Las Vegas Strip, when he first escaped in November, Marsh said. Those fruits have since disappeared, and Sam has moved on to citrus, which are harmful to toucans, she said. Their livers cannot process the calcium, and the iron can be deadly.
“This bird is not in good shape,” Marsh said.
Bird experts and enthusiasts alike are surprised the toucan has survived so long in Las Vegas. Exotic birds that escape often have difficulty finding food and avoiding predators, and the changing weather in Las Vegas has also likely taken a toll on the toucan.
Birds can thermal regulate, but only for so long. It takes a lot of energy, so the toucan would need more food, Price said.
“If it’s still alive, it could be in trouble, I can imagine. So hopefully they catch it," he said.
The toucan has been spotted in one specific location, a sign he’s running out of energy, she said. The rescue group set up a cage with food in it and urged neighbors to stop feeding it. The toucan has scoped out the cage but gets spooked when people are around, Marsh said.
The rescue group will rush him to the vet as soon as he's caught, Marsh said. He’ll need fluids, and his system will need to be flushed to remove the iron he’s eaten.
Marsh urged neighbors to not get close to the toucan or try to trap Sam themselves.
“The more people that are out there, the worse it’s going to be because he doesn’t like people,” she said. “So just let us do our thing, and we’ll get him.”
