“At first, I had a lot of hope. We were starting to get used to the idea that we were going to have a hard time finding her,”** recognizes Nathanaël. Eight years later, this resident of Marseillan in Hérault has just recovered Tequila or “Teq-teq”, a 14-year-old female Gabonese Gray parrot Today. And it was a Drômoise, Marie-Aurélie, who found the bird this Tuesday evening at her home, in La Roche de Glun, 300 km from Hérault.
In Marseillan, in 2016, the parrot disappeared from Nathanaël’s aviary: there was many flights in the territory at this timeHundreds of kilometers away, eight years later, Marie-Aurélie watches the French team’s match in the Euro football championship on Tuesday evening: “Someone rang at my houseshe says, and I was told: ‘Madam, your parrot is outside.’ I have rabbits, no parrot. We got her back [avec son mari] with a fishing net and we put him, for the beginning of the evening, in a rabbit cage.” While waiting to find its owner, Marie-Aurélie inquires, buys seeds and a bird cage on a resale site.
No parrot identification register in 2016
The bird has a ring on the paw but when Tequila was stolen, eight years ago, the protected wildlife identification register (IFAP), for this type of animal, did not yet exist. Marie Aurélie then tried with veterinarians, on social networks, then contacted the only parrot breeder in the North Drôme area, in Romans-sur-Isère: “When he called me back, he said: ‘Madame, it’s a crazy thingI sold the bird to a gentleman, he lives in Marseillan and he had it stolen in 2016.“
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The stars align for Nathanaël: “It’s crazy until the end, he believes, because I still live in Hérault and when [Marie-Aurélie] called me, I was 3 km from where [elle] lives. It’s totally improbable because it’s about 300 km away (sic) of my house.” It is Wednesday evening, Nathanaël finds Tequila, at La Roche de Glun in Drôme, eight years later. “He didn’t believe itremembers Marie-Aurélie. He called his wife crying on the phone.” The next day, the couple from Marseillan came back to get their parrot: “When [la compagne de Nathanaël] spoke to the bird, it changed its behavior a little bit, continues the Drômoise. She told him : ‘Shall we cuddle?’ He lowered his head and put his head between the bars. It was cute, we managed to touch him a little bit.”
A call to find Tequila’s partner
Tequila therefore found her family in Marseillan. The parrot is waiting for a new aviary, dismantled three or four years ago by Nathanaël, out of despair of not finding it one day. The Héraultais still wants to believe in his lucky star: he now hopes to recover Tequila’s male partner, a parrot stolen at the same time, in 2016. “Miracle for miracle, you never know”, smiles Nathanaël. For her part, Drômoise Marie-Aurélie says she quickly became attached to Tequila and thought about it too adopt a bird.
