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Home > Media Room > WRR in the Media > Center saves bedraggled birds: Back home
to nature: Egrets hurt by recent flooding get a second chance
at life.
 Center
saves bedraggled birds: Back home to nature
Egrets hurt by recent flooding get a second
chance at life.
by Alison Beshur, San
Antonio Express-News
Monday, September 2, 2002
Kendalia, Texas — They were nearly
killed by flooding two months ago, but on Sunday, 19 cattle
egrets were released into the wild after rehabilitating at
a sanctuary in this Hill Country hamlet.
One by one the fragile, milk-white birds
were gently coaxed out of traveling carriers near the edge
of an 80-foot rock bluff.
Some stumbled a few feet down onto layered
ledges in the side of the cliff, while others soared above
the tops of the trees on the 187-acre Wildlife Rescue &
Rehabilitation Inc. sanctuary about 45 miles north of San
Antonio.
In early July, torrential rains that swept
through South and Central Texas destroyed branches housing
the cattle egrets' rookery, or nesting area, at the San Antonio
Zoo.
Lynn Cuny, founder and executive director
of the wildlife sanctuary, said more than 100 injured egrets
were taken to the sanctuary in poor condition. They were soaked,
stressed-out and near death.
"There were several that did not make
it past the first week," Cuny said.
Releasing the migratory birds into the wild
and getting them back to their natural environment is the
most rewarding part of the sanctuary's mission, Cuny said.
 "It
is days like today that make all of the work worthwhile,"
she said as she watched the cattle egrets circle a creek-fed
pond at the bottom of the cliff. "They will do what nature
has intended them to do from this point on, even though they've
spent a brief period of time in captivity."
The birds were given around-the-clock care,
fed a specially prepared meat diet and housed in plywood nest
boxes indoors under controlled temperatures to keep them from
going into shock.
They were then moved to a partially covered
aviary — in this case, a 100-by-35-foot enclosure —
where they practiced flying, regained muscle tone and readapted
to outside elements.
Cattle egrets average 20 inches in length
and have a wingspan of about three feet.
About two-thirds of the egrets rescued from
the flooding survived. Fewer than a dozen are still being
treated, and 50 already have been released. Most of the released
birds have stayed on the property.
 "This
is an ideal site for the birds," she said. "There
is enough habitat to develop a rookery." Thousands of
cattle egrets have made the trees at the San Antonio Zoo their
home, said Dawn Campos, development and public affairs manager.
"We can't do anything to attract them
or keep them away, but we're just glad they're here,"
Campos said. "They are welcome visitors to the zoo. The
birds help the education department tell about migratory patterns."
Cuny said the egret rescue, funded solely
by the sanctuary, could not have taken place without donations
and the help of dedicated Volunteers.
About $700,000 still is needed to complete
expansion plans for the rescue and rehabilitation center,
and reliable Volunteers are needed to clean cages, do laundry,
prepare food and set up habitats for recuperating animals,
she said.
Donations can be sent to Wildlife Rescue &
Rehabilitation, P.O. Box 1157, Boerne, TX 78006. Volunteer
applications are available online at www.wildlife-rescue.org.
For more information, call (830) 336-2725.
abeshur@express-news.net
Copyright © 2003 San
Antonio Express-News
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