Peril building in cranes' habitat
Early edition: Four sandhill cranes have been found tortured in a Pasco subdivision as houses sprout.
By MEG LAUGHLIN
Published December 4, 2006
WESLEY CHAPEL — Some of the construction supervisors at the new subdivision say it may have been a bobcat.
Others say it could’ve been an alligator. But the wildlife rescuer who brought the sandhill crane with the hacked-off legs to the emergency veterinary service said it was “obviously malicious.”
The vet who euthanized the suffering bird two weeks ago said the same thing: “Human cruelty.” Because of the way the legs appeared chopped off. Because of similar incidents in the same area.
Last year, a sandhill crane had an electrical cord wrapped so tightly around its neck it couldn’t swallow. Another had a nail embedded in its skull. And yet another had a bullet hole in the tip of its 3-foot wing.
“What’s happening to these beautiful birds is very upsetting,” said veterinarian Michele Lentovich, who put the latest dead crane on ice for evidence. But so far, Florida Wildlife Commission investigator Dan Parisoe says, “We have no clues.”
All four birds were found near construction sites at Meadow Pointe III and IV, part of a sprawling subdivision of thousands of single-family homes and townhouses in central Pasco County.
On any given day, these 4-foot-tall birds dip their red-capped crowns to the earth to rummage for bugs in this 1,000-year-old habitat, among the sky-blue portable toilets, flags for model homes and loaded trash bins.
Lentovich says they are “perplexed and clueless” over what it takes to survive. The dozens that are there have become “too habituated to human beings” in Meadow Pointe, she says, and this familiarity is not breeding healthy, wild sandhills, but controversy — and sometimes cruelty.
“I love watching these birds, but some people here don’t want them around,” says Mark Glassman, an elected member of the Meadow Pointe II Community Development District. Glassman tells of seeing the birds peck at car mirrors and French doors when they see their reflection.
Gary Morse, spokesperson for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, says his agency gets complaints about the birds from the Meadow Pointe area, as well as reports when they have been tortured. He doesn’t want to see the birds hurt, he says, but they need to back off.
He advises residents of Meadow Pointe to cover windows and screens with “non-reflective material” and make perimeter fences with tomato stakes and clear fishing line “at crane-neck level.”
Morse says his agency “tried a top secret method of behavior modification” to get the cranes away from the houses and construction, but it was only “mildly successful.”
“But don’t try compassion, because they don’t understand it,” says Morse, who describes himself as “a bird watcher and a bird hunter.”
The problem, says wildlife commission biologist Nancy Douglass, is where the birds will go if they leave: “We’ve invaded them. They haven’t invaded us,” she said. “The pine wilderness and prairie that is now Meadow Pointe was a crane habitat for thousands of years before.”
They nest in neighborhoods called Deer Run, Grasslands and Sleepy Oak, near $250,000 homes with vaulted ceilings and inlaid tile. They eat bread thrown out by construction workers and wild bird seed put out by residents.
They watch workers carry in the granite for the kitchen counters and frise carpeting for the living rooms.
At night, they sleep in tall grass around a few neighborhood ponds. They group in families of three and four — the parents mating for life and keeping the young close for several years.
“You can walk right up to them,” said construction manager David Dunne, who studies the birds and calls them a “wonderful asset.”
But another construction manager, who asked not to be named, calls them “dangerous” and tells a cautionary tale, making the rounds among Meadow Pointe workers.
A few years ago a sandhill crane at Innisbrook golf course near Palm Harbor used its beak to stab a golfer in the chest “like the stingray tail in Australia,” she said.
“Unfair to the cranes. Never happened, “said Innisbrook golf pro Brant McGivern, who has been there for 12 years.
“We only have a few cranes here, but everybody seems to get along with them.”
Five years ago, the first case of crane abuse was reported to the state wildlife commission. Several miles from Meadow Pointe at Hunter Run, a sandhill crane was shot in the leg with a nail gun.
Wildlife abuse investigator Dennis Parker, who has since retired from the agency, was put on the case. Parker, who describes himself as “a bird lover,” matched the nail with a make of nail gun, then questioned construction workers until he found a witness, got a confession and made an arrest.
“The secret weapon was the $1,000 reward the agency offered to loosen lips,” he said. “If they’re serious, they need to do this again.”
“But,” says investigator Parisoe, “the agency focus is currently on other things besides injured sandhill cranes.”
Meanwhile, hundreds of new homes and townhouses are under construction in Meadow Pointe, as the cranes stand docilely by, watching.
Meg Laughlin can be contacted at mlaughlin@sptimes.com or (727)893-8068.