Inside the Wildlife Clinic: Call in the experts

Photo by Contributed by Jonee Miller

A young wood stork recovers in an outside flight enclosure at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic.

Photo by Contributed by Joanna Fitzgerald Vaught

A nestling heron is hand fed every 30 minutes while being raised at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida wildlife clinic. The nest is inaccessible for staff to be able to return the heron to the parents.

Photo by Contributed by Joanna Fitzgerald Vaught

A nestling heron is hand fed every 30 minutes while being raised at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida wildlife clinic. The nest is inaccessible for staff to be able to return the heron to the parents.

NAPLES — Well-meaning individuals who are trying to help rescue wildlife can end up prolonging the rehabilitation process _ or worse.

That’s what happened with some of the 62 animals admitted during the past week at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic.

Some of the new admissions include a Cooper’s hawk, a barred owl, a red-shouldered hawk, an eastern screech owl, two Northern gannets, a wood stork, a tri-colored heron, seven common grackles, a wild turkey, a black racer, a gopher tortoise, a Florida red-bellied turtle and two Eastern cottontail rabbits.

Several of the animals were kept for extended periods of time at home with unintended consequences.

An adult rabbit was brought to the center after the rescuer kept the animal for six months. Not only is this illegal, but the overall health of the rabbit was compromised because it had been fed an improper diet. Domestic rabbit food is not nutritionally balanced for wild rabbits.

The rabbit was originally rescued after it was attacked by a dog. Its sibling was killed in the attack, and this one had lacerations to its head.

Tragically, the rabbit was blind in one eye and its vision was impaired in the other eye. Staff is unsure of how the blindness occurred, but it might have been a result of the injuries sustained during the dog attack.

Many people have intervened as fledgling songbirds have been attacked by cats.

One man found a fledgling bird and, while he tried to figure out what to do, put it in a cage with his pet bird. When he called the clinic, staff asked him to bring the bird in for care. A day passed and he called back again, still in possession of the bird.

During this phone conversation, the man mentioned the cat actually had the baby bird in its mouth when he rescued it. Since he had the bird for two days, staff was concerned both about possible infection from the cat attack and whether it was being fed.

The man was stunned to realize that baby birds are fed every half hour from dawn until dark. If a young, developing animal does not receive proper nutrition it can lead to health problems that cannot be reversed even if the animal starts to receive a quality diet.

Also, it is against federal and state laws to keep a native bird in captivity without proper permits. In this situation the baby bird was weak and dehydrated when admitted to the clinic. It died within an hour of arrival.

It is impossible to determine if it died from infection or from lack of nourishment.

Another call came from a woman who was on her way to the clinic with a nest of baby birds. She found the nest in a flower pot in her garage.

Coincidentally, the woman had found an adult bird dead in her yard two days prior to finding the nest. A positive species identification was not possible because she had buried the dead bird.

The woman assumed that the dead bird was the parent to the baby birds she found in her garage. Staff informed her that the dead bird most likely wasn’t the parent because the babies were still healthy, alert and vocal. That would not be the case if they had not been fed for two days.

The woman’s vet had informed her baby birds could go two or three days without being fed and still be just fine. That is absolutely not true.

At the clinic, baby birds are fed every 30 minutes during daylight hours. That is approximately 26 to 30 feedings per day.

Birds have extremely high metabolism. If a baby bird misses even just a few feedings, it quickly becomes weak and dehydrated.

As with many bird species, both parents are involved with raising the young. Even if one parent is killed, the other parent will continue to care for the young.

Fortunately the woman was able to return the nest of healthy babies back to her garage.

A young osprey near Marco Island really did need help and got it, thanks to a team rescue effort this week.

The Marco Island police department called the clinic with a report of an osprey caught in monofilament line and hanging by its foot from its nest on a channel marker sign near the Judge S.S. Jolley Bridge.

A clinic volunteer who lives on Marco Island was sent to assist. The Collier County Sheriff’s Office marine unit took our volunteer to the nest site.

By the time they arrived, a charter boat had stopped and cut the bird free from the line. The osprey had some minor scrapes along the leading edges of its wing and some bruising on the legs but is very alert and strong. Thank you to everyone involved in this rescue effort.

Only a few animals were released this week. A red-shouldered hawk admitted in April recovered from a broken wing and was released in the neighborhood where it was originally found.

Another red-shouldered hawk that was brought to the clinic after being hit by a car on State Road 29 was released after a few hours of observation. The hawk did not sustain any serious damage.

Once it recovered from the initial shock of being swiped, it began to perch and fly well in the outdoor flight enclosures at the clinic.

Several of the young songbirds we have been rearing were released after an average stay at the clinic of two months.

Staff released several Northern mockingbirds, common grackles and mourning doves.

Call 239-262-CARE for information about injured or sick wildlife or go to www.conservancy.org to learn more about efforts to protect our native wildlife.