Hawk with injured eye gets specialty care

A broadwing hawk with an injured eye received surgery today from our eye specialist. Dr. Lorraine Karpinski, is a veterinary ophthalmologist who provides this very valuable service to our facility. This bird presented with an injury to its eye possibly caused by a projectile. Because scar tissue formed around the original injury despite our best efforts at treatment, the pupil became stuck in the constricted position. Dr. Karpinski was able to free the scar tissue therefore opening the pupil. Only time will tell if this bird will regain sight in this eye. The gentleman that rescued this bird keeps in touch with me for periodic updates about the bird's future. It is my hope that all who contributed to this bird's journey can join us for a release in the future. Stay tuned for updates. In the meantime, the following shots show the clinic owner Dr. Dugan preparing the bird for anesthesia, Dr Karpinski performing the surgery, and the bird's eye post operation. Look closely, you will see the remainder of bubbles from a substance injected into the eye that were purposely left in to monitor closely whether or not the sutures have kept the interior of the eye water tight.

Happy Holidays (better late than never)

Photoshop is so much fun! This is one of our giant aldabra tortoises posing for me to make this great shot!

Rare and beautiful patient

This rare short tailed hawk arrived last week with a broken wing. This bird was banded by one of the area researchers so we knew that this was a female, first year or juvenile bird. The short tailed hawk is only found only in Florida in the United States. Otherwise the population resides primarily in Central and South America. Their diet consists primarily of birds but they will eat rodents or reptiles. There are two color morphs, a dark phase like this one and a light phase.

Unfortunately, for this bird and many others like her, she was shot by some uncaring human that had little regard for her life. We receive dozens of birds each year that bear the marks of being shot. Fortunately for this bird most of the bullet went all the way through the wing and caused a limited amount of damage. Some fragments of the bullet were however left in as you can see in this x-ray (services donated by Pinecrest Veterinary Hospital).

Others are not so lucky. Their gunshot wounds leave them mortally wounded, left to suffer in pain, to starve to death, and eventually die. By the time we see them at our center many of them have severe infections or the bone has been destroyed rendering them grounded forever.

In particular, there are individuals who keep birds for pets, sport, or farm fowl who will shoot a raptor on sight, just to remove any threat that their pets or livestock would be harmed. Little do these ignorant individuals realize that most of the raptors down here in Miami are simply passing through and may not even stop to prey on their animals. What a tragic shame to lose such a magnificent creature based upon what might happen. Furthermore, what arrogance and malice possesses someone to assume that they have the right to decide what creature lives and dies based upon their own selfish needs. Better yet what gives these people the right to play God and to claim the sky above their head as their own or to take away my right to enjoy the everyday sight of them flying across the sky?

Seriously folks, it is time for people to stand up to these people and say no more. Please report any gunshot raptors to your local U S Fish and Wildlife Office. The home page of their website is at http://www.fws.gov/birds/. It is against the law to shoot any migratory bird, including raptors. Please take the time to report these crimes. Don't let these people take our birds and our skies away from us.



In the meantime, I will keep you posted on this beautiful patient and keep your fingers crossed that she will one day fly again.

Back on my Blog!

Well it's been more than a year since I posted anything. I think that what happens to us is that we neglect something for so long that we feel it is an unsurmountable task to reconnect and just jump back in without some symbolic gesture that we are back. At least it feels that way to me. So here I am back again ready to share the unique world of raptor rehabilitation with the world. This time I will not attempt to write a novel each time, but just try to share snippets of my world as I believe that is what these blogs are designed to do. I have other animal interests I will share from time to time and I am lucky that I get to see all kinds in my work.

Here's one of my favorite photos of me 5 years ago with one of the first birds I felt connected with at my current job. His name is Mr. Pepe, a red-shouldered hawk. He was brought to the Museum by a rehabilitator who had unknowingly "imprinted" him. Imprinting is the method by which an animal, at an early age, associates him/herself with another creature/caregiver so that he/she can model and adapt all future social behavior to that individual. In the wild, imprinting is an important process for the baby animal and will ensure that it is cared for properly and can at some point in the future pair up with and breed with another member of its kind. When an animal is allowed to imprint onto a human, it will ruin the animal's chance for survival in the wild as it will be maladapted to all of the behaviors necessary for its social success with other members.

For example, one year I attempted to introduce Mr. Pepe to an orphaned red shouldered hawk with the hopes of giving the orphan a chance to associate with his own kind and socialize with an adult red shouldered hawk. Our great horned owl is also an imprint but will allow young owls to coexist peacefully with him as will our foster mom Lucille, an imprint screech owl. Mr. Pepe however, wouldn't have any of this. As soon as he saw the youngster he flew at it aggressively several times (with me there protecting the youngster) until I deemed the experiment a complete failure.

Mr. Pepe therefore, remains in captivity for the rest of his days because of the ignorance of this individual who allowed him to lose all of his wild instincts. He will continue to be an outstanding ambassador to his wild counterparts. He has since blossomed into a stunning mature red-shouldered hawk. He still has his charms, but has lost his childish ways and at times can be a danger to his handlers due to the surging hormones that can create aggressive behavior in these imprints.

In his current state, Mr. Pepe helps to spread the word of what can go wrong by keeping animals meant to be wild as pets. It may seem fun and really cool, but as always, babies grow up and will always turn into hormonal adults in one way or another and can be dangerous to the unsuspecting human, especially if released into the wild. Please always attempt to contact a wildlife rehabilitator or wildlife officer if you find a baby animal. If you cannot find one in your area, please contact me for assistance.