Bangladesh court reunites lovesick parrot with her Prince

DHAKA: A Bangladeshi court ruled on Monday that a lovesick macaw parrot be reunited with her male partner after she stopped eating in the wake of their separation. The macaw named Princess has been fasting since Jan. 3 when her long-time companion Prince was handed back to his owner Iqram Selim who had left him in the hands of a private zoo in Dhaka for safe keeping five years ago.
A magistrates court in the capital Dhaka ruled that Princess should stay with Selim, saying it would be cruel to separate her from her mate after such a long period and could lead to her death, lawyers and family sources said. The zoo owner, Abdul Wadud, bought Princess from a dealer in Brazil as a partner for Prince and the couple got on so well that she gave birth to three chicks in September 2011, according to Wadud’s lawyer Barun Biswash.
After Wadud refused to return Prince, Selim won a court order last week and was reunited with his gold and blue parrot last Thursday. But after Princess went on hunger strike, Wadud decided to appeal the order and the court ruled Monday in his favor. Wildlife experts said that Princess’s refusal to take food following the separation was quite normal as the species is generally monogamous once they have found a suitable mate.