MAMA Cass, a kookaburra too fat to fly because of sausage handouts, is now light enough to once again take to the air thanks to a fitness regimen at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo.
The Daily Telegraph said it was only 15m flight, straight to the nearest tree branch, but it was enough to put a smile on the face of the zoo’s bird boot camp trainer Gemma Watkinson.
More than two weeks of dieting and exercise at the zoo had seen Mama Cass’s weight drop from 545g – 40 per cent heavier than normal – to a far more sleek 446g yesterday.
The kookaburra, which Taronga named not only for her hefty frame but also because “she has quite a set of lungs on her”, had been rescued from a Sydney park as she was being chased by dogs.
“We first thought she’d been hurt, had broken a bone from flying into a window or something,” Ms Watkinson said.
“But after X-rays we realised that she was just far too fat to fly and escape the dogs and we think people had been feeding her sausages or mince every day.”
Ms Watkinson said reducing Mama Cass’s weight was a real challenge: “I had to chase her to get her to move. She refused to exercise.”