Third Sandhill Crane Found Mutilated In Wesley Chapel

By KEITH MORELLI The Tampa Tribune

Published: Nov 26, 2006

TAMPA - Sandhill cranes, majestic and gregarious, can draw oohs and ahhs from people who never have seen them before.

The big birds are trusting sorts, as they gracefully high-step along rural roads or in pastures, eating plants, insects and an occasional lizard. The cranes, which can live for 30 years and reach 5 feet in height with a wingspan of more than 6 feet, stride comfortably alongside hefty cattle just as they sidle up to humans.

But sometimes their trusting nature is a liability.

In one part of Wesley Chapel, sandhill cranes face a danger of deliberate mutilation. Three times during the past year, within one half-mile of a construction site in the Meadow Pointe subdivision, sandhill cranes found big trouble.

Last year, a bird was brought to an emergency veterinarian after it was found with a nail, fired from a nail gun, in its head.

Then wildlife rescuers found a crane with an extension cord, fashioned as a noose, tightened around its neck so it couldn't swallow.

This month brought another shocker. A sandhill crane's legs had been badly injured, with one foot twisted off.

A wildlife rescuer who did not want to be identified said the bird was unable to move, its mangled feet askew, with bones sticking out.

"Its two legs looked like they had been snapped right below the knee," the rescuer said.

Emergency veterinarian Michele Lentovich treated two of the birds. The crane with the nail in its head survived, she said, and eventually was set free. The one with the noose also survived and was released.

The one with the damaged legs was euthanized.

"Someone had broken both of its legs," she said. "For both of these legs to be broken - it was an old injury, two or three days, with one foot dangling and the other completely missing - it was deliberate. If it had been hit by a car, there would have been other wounds."

All three injured cranes were rescued near a Meadow Pointe subdivision construction site just north of the Hillsborough-Pasco county line, said Lentovich, who provides trauma care for wildlife at the Tampa Bay Veterinary Emergency Service.

"We get a lot of cranes in," she said. "But most aren't with that type of injury."

Many have had run-ins with cars, she said. Others are injured by monofilament fishing line or even flying golf balls.

But treating cranes with deliberately inflicted injuries is unusual.

"I've seen three in the last two years or so which are the result of deliberate acts of mutilation," Lentovich said.

Sandhill cranes may have adapted too well in sharing space with humans, she said.

"They don't have instincts to get away like other birds," Lentovich said. "They are easy to approach, easy to catch."

People should not feed cranes, the wildlife rescuer said. Doing so fosters trust that could result in the bird trusting the wrong person.

Gary Morse, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said sandhill cranes are a species of special concern, and harassing or injuring them can bring stiff penalties.

Five years ago, he said, in the same general area of Wesley Chapel, a sandhill crane was shot in the leg with a nail fired from a nail gun wielded by a construction worker.

The 19-year-old Wauchula man was arrested by a wildlife officer and charged with killing or wounding a designated species, a third-degree felony, Morse said. He served three weekends in jail and three years of probation.

He told investigators he shot the bird on a dare from co-workers.

Morse said the commission has not been contacted about the recent mutilations. The only complaints from that area, he said, are about people feeding the birds.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 865-1504 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.