Worlds collide: Pointers for surprising and scary encounters with wildlife

I expected to find my husband hauling mulch in the backyard as I walked through the mango trees.

Instead, I found on our lawn a 12-inch mullet, still moist and flopping despite a talon-induced puncture wound. Moments earlier, an osprey and eagle had engaged in aerial combat overhead. Now I knew why.

The next time I walked across the grass out back, I found a headless ladyfish. Guess that was another gift from the skies. But this time there was no hope for the fish.

The closeness of these two events didn’t surprise me. If you live in Southwest Florida, you find yourself interacting with wildlife even if you don’t go near a preserve.

I thought about the fought-over fish as I attended a recent Lee County Parks & Recreation training session for staff and volunteers about knowing when to intervene, when to walk away and what to expect from wildlife as the population swells around animals’ habitat and encounters are more frequent.

A wood stork at the dock waiting on a fisherman. BETSY CLAYTON / FLORIDA WEEKLY “Wildlife invades our parks! How to understand critters that may have no legs, more teeth and a general dislike of us” was the title page on a PowerPoint done by Laura Wewerka, who for years worked at the Calusa Nature Center and now is a Conservation 20/20 staffer with Lee County Parks & Recreation.

Her session was about snakes. But her point was universal.

“A lot of these animals are getting crowded into smaller green places,” she said as she showed an aerial photo of South Fort Myers’ Rutenberg Park, a lush oasis amid rooftops.

So what can you do? Lots, actually. You can avoid inadvertently harming wildlife with simple steps. And you can keep key points in mind as you patrol your yard, boat on our waterways or venture onto a path to hike.

.. No, Fido! Prevent your pet dogs and cats from attacking and/or playing with wildlife. Many injured animals are brought to clinics at CROW and the Conservancy of Southwest Florida because of wounds from domestic animal attacks.

.. Teach kids. Wild animals shouldn’t be disturbed when they’re in their natural habitat. Teach the children in your life this message. Animals are not playthings.

.. Let the babies be. Infant species seldom are truly orphans. Let them be. A parent may be nearby foraging for food or will return at dusk. If you find young birds on the ground, attempt to return them to their nests. Or, if they’re learning to fly, place them in a tree for safety if pets are nearby.

.. Timber time. Check trees before trimming or cutting them down to make sure there are not active nests. If dead trees pose no hazard, leave them for owls, squirrels and woodpeckers. Don’t trim trees during spring and summer nesting seasons.

.. Wild things. Don’t attempt to raise or keep wildlife as pets. It is illegal and rarely works out.

.. Don’t feed them. Feeding animals encourages them to become dependent on handouts, to lose their fear of humans and to congregate in unnaturally large groups, increasing the chance of disease transmission.

.. Stunning help. If a bird is stunned by crashing into a window, place it in a small, ventilated box. Cover the box and wrap a rubber band around it. In 20 minutes, take the box outdoors, point it away from you and open the lid. The bird should bolt for the nearest tree.

.. Don’t accuse the serpents. Many people fear snakes enough that they kill them when they find them in the yard. In fact, fewer than four deaths per year result from venomous snakebites in the United States.

.. Freeze. If you realize you’re near a snake, the best thing to do — especially with venomous snakes — is to just freeze and then back away slowly. Snakes key in on movement, and fast moves startle them.

.. No need to bring it in. Basically, two anti-venoms exist in the United States, one for coral snakes and one for other bites. So if you are bitten, you don’t need to capture the snake to bring it to the E.R.

.. Unhook the birds. Unfortunately, a lot of water birds and other wildlife end up hooked in fishing tackle. If you hook a bird, reel it in slowly and ask someone to help. Grasp the bird’s bill but leave a crack open so it can breathe. Fold its wings against its body, restraining it. Cover its head with a cloth. Push the hook through the skin till you can see the barb, which you can cut off and then back the hook out.

.. Take the next step. Experts say if you can see one hook in a bird, there may be four more ingested. For help, call CROW at 472-3644 or the Conservancy of Southwest Florida at 262-0304.

.. Go gators. Alligators seldom bite people for reasons other than food. Female alligators may protect their nests by hissing and opening their mouths to frighten intruders but seldom are a threat to people. Never feed a gator.

.. Tidy up. Never put fish scraps in the water. You may not be intentionally feeding gators and wildlife doing this, but the end result can be the same. Use garbage cans at boat ramps and fish camps. 

— Betsy Clayton is a freelancer based on

Pine Island and also is Lee County Parks &

Recreation’s waterways coordinator. Contact

her at boatingbybetsy@yahoo.com.