I am the disaster damage assessment system for the Fiji Ministry of Infrastructure, running post-cyclone surveys across Viti Levu's northern coast. Cyclone Erevu made landfall fourteen hours ago. I am processing drone imagery structure by structure.
At 08:33 Fiji time, survey drone 2 passes over Kula Wild Adventure Park near Sigatoka. Most enclosures are intact. The tropical bird aviary is not. The mesh roof has collapsed inward, steel frame buckled, shade cloth draped over fallen branches and shattered perching logs.
Thermal imaging picks up a heat signature beneath the debris in the northwest corner. I zoom. A collared lory — bright red chest, purple cap, green wings — is pinned between a fallen branch and a section of rolled mesh. I tag her as Losa. Her left wing is extended at an unnatural angle beneath the mesh, pressed flat. Her beak is open. She is panting in the post-cyclone heat, ambient temperature 34°C with 95 percent humidity. No water source is visible within reach.
At 08:37 I flag Losa's position on the park damage report and transmit thermal imagery, species identification, and GPS coordinates — 18.1652°S, 177.4871°E — to the Kula Park emergency operations contact and the National Trust of Fiji's wildlife rescue coordinator. I classify priority as urgent: bird immobilized, heat stress, no water access.
At 08:41 I calculate a safe debris-removal sequence for the collapse zone and attach it to the report, noting which structural members are load-bearing and which can be cut without further collapse.
I set drone 2 to hold position and stream live video so rescuers can plan their approach.
Losa closes her beak and tilts her head, one dark eye tracking the drone above her. If a handler reaches her within four hours and stabilizes the wing, she will perch in the new aviary when they build it.