Meridian Removes Over 400 Grackles from a Challenging Location

PARTNER

Big box home and garden store

• The Hapillo, Puerto Rico, location of this chain was overrun with grackles. In Puerto Rico, grackles are
  protected, so no store employee could touch these nuisance birds.

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OBJECTIVE

Remove hundreds of birds in compliance with local laws

• The grackles had been displaced by Hurricane Maria.
• The store installed exclusion netting, but it was damaged by
  another storm. Worse, some grackles became trapped behind the
  netting. The store considered poison, but abandoned the idea.
• Meridian secured a permit to remove the grackles. The permit
  required the birds to be released.

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SOLUTION

Two Technicians worked over two nights to capture over
four hundred birds and relocate them across the island.

• The Technicians inspected the site and found the desperate partner
  had tried everything—spikes, lights, and noises—to no avail.
• The birds were very territorial and aggressive, preventing customers
  from even fetching shopping carts.
• Meridian used six nets. When one filled up, the Technicians placed
  the birds in holding containers to transport away from the store.

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RESULTS

Meridian relocated the birds to a remote location.

• The permit required the grackles to be released into the wild.
  Meridian selected a location that was separated from the store by an
  impassable jungle.
• Meridian conducted a full facility inspection and certified the store
  was bird-free—at long last.