Crow Picture Show

The CROW Picture Show offers an insider’s look at why critters come to CROW, and features photos of
the wild animals who wind up there.Last year, Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife, Southwest Florida’s only wildlife hospital, cared for 4,111 sick, injured, and orphaned animals. Of the more than
200 different species, 54 percent were birds, 38 percent were mammals, and
eight percent were reptiles/amphibians/ invertebrates.
Due to restrictions imposed by governmental agencies, CROW cannot allow visitors to view patients in person. But in this 30-minute presentation visitors can see photos of current and past patients,
with commentary by Claudia Burns, a veteran clinic volunteer.
The CROW Picture Show is presented each Friday at 11 a.m. in the CROW Healing Winds Visitor Education Center at 3883 Sanibel-Captiva Road, across from The Sanibel School. Admission for
adults is $5, teens, $3, and free for members and children 12 and under. Admission includes the presentation, plus the opportunity to explore CROW’s hands-on educational facility and become
familiar with its efforts to save wildlife through compassion, care and education.
For more information, call 472-3644, ext. 231. To learn more about CROW,
visit www.crowclinic.org   From the Island Sun

CROW Picture Show held every Friday

"Ding" Darling’s Wildlife Drive is closed on Fridays, so the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW) has devised a special weekly presentation to help fill the gap. 

The CROW Picture Show offers an insider’s look at why critters come to CROW, and features photos of the wild animals who wind up there.

Last year, southwest Florida’s only wildlife hospital cared for 4,111 sick, injured, or orphaned animals. Of the more than 200 different species, 54 percent were birds, 38 percent were mammals, and 8 percent were reptiles, amphibians or invertebrates. 

Due to restrictions imposed by governmental agencies, CROW cannot allow visitors to view patients in person. But now the clinic offers the next best thing – a 30-minute presentation showing photos of current and past patients, with commentary by Claudia Burns, a veteran clinic volunteer.

The CROW Picture Show is presented each Friday at 11 a.m. in the CROW Healing Winds Visitor Education Center at 3883 Sanibel-Captiva Road, across from The Sanibel School. 

Members are admitted free. Non-member adults pay $5, teens are $3, and children 12 and under are free. Admission includes the presentation, plus the opportunity to explore CROW’s hands-on educational facility and become familiar with their efforts to save wildlife through compassion, care and education.

For more information, call 472-3644 ext. 231. To learn more about CROW, visit www.crowclinic.org'>www.crowclinic.org.  Claudia Burns

CROW offers education on wildlife rescue, new picture show

t began with one lady and one injured bird. 

In 1968, Sanibel resident Shirley Walter found an injured royal tern. After being unable to find it help, she carried the bird that had been struck by a car to her home. She shared the story with her friends and before long a group of volunteers rallied together for a common cause -- helping injured wildlife. 

In the first year the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW) was formed, more than 500 distress calls were taken with many of them received by the late Dr. Phyllis Douglass. By the 1970s, Walter, Douglass and many of the volunteers began to shape the emerging field of wildlife medicine. The clinic quickly outgrew Walter’s home and moved to the Captiva home of Adelaide Cherbonnier before relocating to 10 acres of the Sawbridge family property on Sanibel-Captiva Road.

By the early 1980s, CROW moved to a new building with staff apartments and the success continued throughout the decade. By the 1990s, CROW had built its Robert E. Schneider Education Pavilion and had educational programs in place. After being devastated by Hurricane Charlie in 2004, CROW quickly bounced back and celebrated its 40th anniversary five years later with the opening of a 4,800-square-foot veterinary hospital and Healing Winds Visitors Education Center. The 5,100-square-foot education center serves as a venue for innovative visitor displays, interactive exhibits and live patient videos, as well as other special events. The nearby hospital is complete with diet preparation areas, a laundry room, reptile room, pediatric ward and surgery room with a viewing area. 

"CROW is about release," stated executive director Steve Greenstein. 

Today it operates one of the country’s leading rehabilitation facilities on the 12.5-acre campus. CROW treats more than 4,000 sick, injured and orphaned wildlife patients each year with the help of staff veterinarians, clinicians and volunteers, as well as students enrolled in CROW's wildlife medicine programs. Treatments and rehabilitation services employ both eastern and western approaches to care.

"Saving lives is a team effort," said Greenstein. 

CROW currently has 459 animals with 265 of them being babies. To help raise awareness of CROW’s mission, it has instituted a picture show. Since "Ding" Darling Wildlife Drive is closed on Fridays the clinic has a devised a special weekly presentation to help bridge the gap. The CROW picture show offers an insiders look at why critters come to CROW and features photos of the wild animals who wind up there. 

"Twenty-nine percent of animals come to us because they are orphaned," stated Claudia Burns, who volunteers with CROW in many capacities. "The largest category, aside from babies, is made up of birds with 54 percent." 

Last year, Southwest Florida’s only wildlife hospital cared for 4,111 sick, injured or orphaned animals. Of the more than 200 different species, 34 percent were mammals and 8 percent were reptiles, amphibians or invertebrates. Due to restrictions imposed by governmental agencies, CROW cannot allow visitors to view patients in its hospital. But now the clinic offers the next best thing – a 30-minute presentation showing photos of current and past patients with a commentary by Burns. 

"The goal is to create a tool to take to schools and other venues as an outreach tool," stated Greenstein about the picture show. 

The CROW picture show is presented each Friday at 11 a.m. in the CROW Healing Winds Visitor Education Center, 3883 Sanibel-Captiva Road, across from Sanibel School. Members are admitted free. The cost for non-members is $5; teens pay $3 and children 12 years of age or younger are admitted free of charge. Admission includes the presentation, plus the opportunity to explore CROW’s hands-on educational facility and become familiar with its efforts in saving wildlife through compassion, care and education. SHANNEN HAYES
For more information on CROW, call 472-3644 ext. 231 or visitwww.crowclinic.org.

CROW offering care to eagle shot in Lehigh

It will take some time to heal, but whether an American bald eagle, shot and wounded near Lehigh Acres earlier this month, will ever fly again in the skies above Southwest Florida remains in question.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is seeking the public's assistance in finding whoever shot the mature eagle, while two conservation groups have offered a reward of $3,500 for information leading to an arrest.

According to the FWC, local residents first noticed the eagle on the ground on March 3, near the 3900 block of 20th Street SW in Lehigh Acres. At that time, it was not evident the bird had sustained gunshot wounds. The eagle remained on the ground until March 7, when a concerned citizen realized the bird was injured and took it to the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW) on Sanibel, where it is currently recovering.

"The eagle is in our (Intensive Care Unit) right now," Dr. Amber McNamara, clinic director at CROW, said on Tuesday afternoon. "We performed surgery on Day 3 (March 10). The patient is doing well at this point, and our ultimate goal remains release." 

FWC investigator Greg Stanley believes the bird was shot sometime earlier that week, in the general vicinity of where it was rescued. 

“The nearest known bald eagle nest is 3.8 miles from where the bird was rescued, and the injuries to the bird would have prevented it from traveling very far from where it was shot,” Stanley said.

The FWC is investigating the incident, and Stanley hopes someone will come forward with information. 

“This is a callous act that cannot be tolerated," he added. "The bald eagle has recently come off the federal endangered species list and Florida’s imperiled species list as the result of decades of hard work by conservationists and a supportive public."

The Wildlife Alert Reward Association is offering a $1,000 reward in this case, and the Humane Society of the United States and the Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust has added $2,500.

Intentionally harming a bald eagle is a misdemeanor, punishable under federal law by up to a $100,000 fine and/or up to one year in prison. Anyone with information about this incident should call the Wildlife Alert hotline at 888-404-3922 or report it online atwww.MyFWC.com/WildlifeAlert'>www.MyFWC.com/WildlifeAlert. Those reporting violations may remain anonymous. JEFF LYSIAK