29th September 2021
Jackdaw Ranjit came to us as a very poorly nestling after a nest fall in June 2016. At the time we fought very hard to save his life, as he came to us in shock and with signs of severe malnutrition and dehydration. As it is often the case in wildlife rescue and rehabilitation, we did not exactly know what has happened to him. However, it was very likely that Ranjit was the so called ‘runt’ of the brood, as he was not just poorly but appeared also underdeveloped for his age compared to his siblings. The runt of a group of birds hatched from the same clutch of eggs is usually the smallest and weakest of them.
Ranjit had to spend a long time in intensive care and in the incubator, together with the similarly poorly jay nestling Clive. To our delight, Ranjit took up the fight, despite his illness, and clearly showed us that he wanted to live. And he won his fight. But life had a few more challenges for Ranjit. We managed to treat and cure his health problems, but we could not do a lot about his general development. After a year of tender loving care we had to realise that Ranjit would not be able to gain the physical strength and stamina required to survive in the wild. We postponed his release for another year, to give him another chance he deserved, but eventually we had to accept the fact that his situation would not change significantly to the better, and that he would have to stay with us for the rest of his life. And so he did. Ranjit settled very well into his residential jackdaw group, and has even helped to foster quite a number of jackdaw fledglings throughout the following seasons.
Unexpectedly, and without any signs of illness, Ranjit passed away in his sleep at the age of 6 years. Our cheeky and chatty Ranjit is being greatly missed by us, his jackdaw friends and of course by his partner. Rest in peace Ranjit. You will live on for ever in our hearts.
“The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different.” Hippocrates