Florida Wildlife Hospital<\/a> in Melbourne.<\/p>\nEach is on the mend, and caregivers don\u2019t believe the injuries happened naturally.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last couple years, we\u2019ve had some pelicans coming in with very suspicious wing fractures that did not appear to be trauma. It appeared to be intentional harming,\u201d said Tracy Frampton, the hospital\u2019s executive director.<\/p>\n
The hospital and others are collaborating with the University of Florida Veterinary Forensic Sciences Lab, reviewing records of injured animals.<\/p>\n
Some have a single broken wing likely caused by a human, but others are dead, and autopsies will be performed this week to document the injuries and determine the cause.<\/p>\n
Frampton said they\u2019ve also seen an influx of northern gannets. Those birds live out over the ocean and only come to shore to breed.<\/p>\n
Most are juveniles experiencing their first migration, and it\u2019s taking a toll on their bodies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been fighting the weather, the waves, they haven\u2019t been able to eat for days,\u201d Frampton said. \u201cAnd they wash ashore, and by the time they wash ashore, their muscle mass is deteriorated. Their health has deteriorated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Being diving birds, their legs are far back on their bodies, making it difficult to walk on land.<\/p>\n
Frampton said that all 101 gannets they\u2019ve brought in have died.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not suspecting avian flu, but we are sending some samples off just in case,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Beachgoers are asked not to disturb the birds as it stresses them out further.<\/p>\n
Many pass away naturally on the beach.<\/p>\n
Anybody who sees one of these potentially injured birds on Brevard beaches is urged to call Florida Wildlife Hospital at 321-254-8843.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE, Fla. \u2014 Injured birds are being seen on Brevard County beaches of late \u2014 some with broken…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1684,274,315,1563,28,30,29,9143,115,139,278],"class_list":["post-100575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-animals","tag-app-top-stories","tag-brevard-county","tag-environment","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-greg-pallone","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}