First, a Florida ‘water turkey’ got caught in underpants. A sock caused some new trouble
An anhinga in Southwest Florida got itself into a situation it couldn’t get out on Saturday, and luckily some wildlife professionals were able to provide an assist.
According to a Facebook post from the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW), an adult female came across some debris in the water in Pine Island, and her beak got entangled.
The debris? A sock.
Also known as a darter or water turkey, the anhinga has a pointed, serrated beak, useful to spear and secure prey, says the rehab center. But the sharp beak is likely the reason the creature became snagged on some of the sock’s threading.
A similar unfortunate incident occurred in Satellite Beach back in August. The same species got its beak ensnared on a pair of black underpants that had been trashed in the water.
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As for the most recent situation, the anhinga was otherwise unharmed when it was brought to the nearby facility — just a little on the thin side. After the clothing was removed, the bird was cleared for release, as per the post.
CROW spokeswoman Haillie Mesics says it’s unclear of the circumstances of how the sock and the bird met up.
“As a general assumption, there is a lot of debris, especially small items like plastics, clothing, etc., still lingering in our environment in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian,” she told the Miami Herald on Wednesday. “The anhinga is a diving bird so she may have encountered the sock while diving down to hunt for fish or the entanglement could have occurred in multiple other ways.”
Mesics adds they may never know.
“That’s the tricky part about wildlife rescue and rehabilitation; oftentimes we receive little to no patient history.”
Another video shows the bird back home in the wild, her snakelike neck bobbing along the surface of the water, as nature intended.
