Inside the Wildlife Clinic: Caring neighbors make the difference PHOTOS

Contributed by Joanna Fitzgerald Vaught

A yellow-crowned night heron baby was admitted to the Conservancy of Southwest Florida Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic after it had fallen from the nest.

Contributed by Joanna Fitzgerald Vaught

A Conservancy of Southwest Florida Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic worker feeds a baby boat-tailed grackle. The baby was admitted with a broken leg. It most likely was injured when it fell from the nest. The leg will be splinted for approximately two weeks while the bone heals.

Contributed by Tim Thompson

The yellow-crowned night heron sits in the nest with its siblings. Successful re-nesting was possible with the help of Conservancy of Southwest Florida Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic volunteer Tim Thompson and willing residents in Bonita Springs. Re-nesting means the baby will grow up in the wild being cared for by its parents.

NAPLES — Much of our good work could not be done without the help of caring people in our community _ and this week was no different.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic admitted 53 new wildlife patients this past week. Some of the new admissions included an American alligator, a common nighthawk, a big brown bat, a great egret, a snowy egret, two northern cardinals, three boat-tailed grackles and a gopher tortoise.

Learning to Fly --- In a Parking Lot?

The three boat-tailed grackles admitted were all young birds that were at the fledgling stage of growth. Two of them came from busy shopping center parking lots. Unfortunately for the fledglings, parking lots can be difficult places to learn to fly.

The best scenario for a healthy baby animal is to be raised by its parents. Since parents of healthy baby birds are generally nearby, we ask people to keep healthy baby birds where they find them. However, these birds were in high-traffic parking lots, and the people who found them feared that the young birds would not be safe if returned to where they were found.

In both cases, the parents were nearby tending to and defending their babies. One of the two babies was successfully returned to the parents.

Staff advised the “rescuers” to let the parents see and hear their baby while they guided the adults to a vegetated, less busy area on the edge of the parking lot.

Amusing Personalities

The other boat-tailed grackles were weak and kept at the clinic for extended care. Boat-tailed grackles are significantly larger then common grackles and the babies are very gangly. They have disproportionately long legs compared to their bodies.

It takes awhile for them to gain the coordination needed to perch properly. Their awkward manner and inquisitive nature, combined with a very loud, staccato, tin horn sounding call when begging for food, makes them enjoyable and amusing to care for.

An Easy Transport from Marco

One of our Marco Island Critter Couriers (volunteers who offer to transport injured or sick animals to the clinic) had been especially busy helping us this past week.

The first call to our volunteer was to transport a great egret found floating in Marco Bay. When admitted the bird was hypothermic and appeared near death. It had no external injuries but it was underweight and blood work showed it was fighting an infection.

We rehydrated the egret with electrolytes and administered a broad spectrum antibiotic. It responded quickly to treatment and was able to stand the morning after it was admitted.

Two days later, it eagerly began to self feed. Once the egret finishes the course of antibiotics, we will do more blood tests to ensure the infection has cleared. After that, we’ll begin strengthening exercises in a large outdoor recovery enclosure at the clinic.

A “Stylish” Transport

The second call we received from Marco Island was about an injured black vulture, spotted near a garbage dumpster for two days.

The caller did not have the bird contained but was willing to help if we could send a volunteer.

Since vultures are carrion (dead carcass) eaters, they can generally find enough food on the ground to stay strong, even if they have a wing injury that keeps them from flying.

Vultures are also shockingly fast and agile runners. We warned our volunteer that unlike the egret, this bird was not contained and could be difficult to catch, even when they can’t fly.

Duly warned, the volunteer, an extremely petite, stylish and beautiful woman, was called to help catch and transport the bird. She managed to catch the vulture while wearing 3½ inch heels! When she arrived at the clinic in her BMW, she looked chic as ever and, as always, had a smile on her face.

The vulture didn’t look so good. It has a wing injury and is underweight. Vultures can be problematic to rehabilitate because their response to stress is to regurgitate.

Therefore it can be difficult to get the medicine and nutrition they need because they will often throw up everything we try to feed them.

Vultures are a prime example of why we can’t let people tour behind the scenes at the clinic. Stress inhibits the immune system which adversely affects an animal’s ability to heal. Stress can be fatal and we constantly strive to minimize the stress on the animals in our care.

Our goal is to handle each animal as quickly and efficiently as possible. We also keep the talking in the clinic to a minimum so it is quiet for the animals being housed in the building.

We are anxious for work to start on our new wildlife clinic because the larger size and separate areas for different wildlife will decrease the stress on the animals.

Returned Home --- Quickly!

The 12 ½ inch baby alligator, admitted after it was found in a swimming pool, was not injured.

The homeowner was unsure what to do with it. The alligator’s “home,” a canal across the road, had been destroyed by a construction project so there was no safe water source where it could return.

Fortunately, it was extremely frightened of people, making the decision to release it very easy. The alligator was released shortly after it was admitted, in a remote area of Collier County with fresh water, abundant food and plenty of vegetation where it could hide.

Going Home

Releases this week include several opossums that were raised at the clinic after their mothers had been killed by cars. We also released two mourning doves, admitted as fledglings. The doves were blown from nests and could not be re-nested, even though we tried.

A yellow-crowned night heron was successfully re-nested with the help of a clinic volunteer and some nature-loving residents in Bonita Springs.

It took a lot of ingenuity and several people, but the yellow-crowned night heron was returned to the nest, with it siblings, all while the parent waited nearby.

With all the good news, however, it still was a sobering week: 20 of the 49 new admissions did not make it through their first 48 hours of treatment.

Any questions or concerns about wildlife in distress, please call the Conservancy of Southwest Florida Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic at 239-262-2273 (CARE) or visit conservancy.org, where you can also learn more about the plans for our new Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic.