Gulliver’s Travels at an End

Just like the fictional 18th century traveler of the same name, Gulliver the parrot has had many adventures in his young life. You’ll recall that the five-year-old blue and gold macaw was abandoned — along with Snickers the cocker spaniel pup — by his owners on Fanning Island after their sailboat wrecked on the island’s reef. Cruisers Robby and Lorraine Coleman first rang the alarm that the pets were slated for execution by the Kiribati governement if they weren’t repatriated. Thanks to the efforts of hundreds of animal lovers, the final chapter on this drama is coming to a close.

"Gulliver finally was given his U.S. citizenship and released from quarantine on  August 7," said Sybil Erden, "exactly eight months to the day that he had shipwrecked in the South Pacific." Erden is the Executive Director of The Oasis Sanctuary, the Arizona-based bird sanctuary that spent $15,000 and countless hours of volunteer work to rescue the bird. Erden describes Gulliver as a "spokesparrot" for neglected and abused parrrots everywhere.

Last Saturday, Gulliver was reunited, if only for a day, with his canine buddy Snickers — who was rescued back in April and now happily lives in Las Vegas with Jack Joslin — at a celebration in San Diego. Erden reports that quarantine was tough on the bird as he was in cramped quarters for a month, but now that he’s able to stretch his wings in the large macaw aviary, he’s settling in nicely. "His life will be boring now," Erden laughed. Just as it should be.