The Wildlife Center of Virginia, the nation’s leading teaching and research hospital for native wildlife, will release a Turkey Vulture on Friday, February 6 at 11:00 a.m. at Cherry Hill Farm, on Variety Mills Road near Arrington, in Nelson County.

Participating in the release will be Randy Huwa, Executive Vice President of the Wildlife Center, and Lee Schaeffer, a wildlife rehabilitator from British Columbia who is completing a two-month externship at the Center.

This Turkey Vulture was spotted on January 14 in a backyard in Staunton, having difficulty flying.  The bird was rescued by Shane Ayers of Staunton Animal Control and brought to the Center’s Waynesboro clinic.

Upon admission, the vulture was given a complete diagnostic examination.  The bird had feathers missing from its left wing but was generally in good body condition.  Radiographs revealed a bony callus on fractured left digits [equivalent to fingers] and lead pellets, indicating that the vulture had been shot.  The bird was treated with anti-inflammatories, fluids, and antibiotics and was soon moved to an outdoor pen.  On January 29, the vulture was moved to one of the Center’s large flight pens, where it has now demonstrated that it is ready for return to the wild.    The missing feathers on the bird’s wing will be replaced naturally through molting later this spring.

The bird to be released on Friday is one of two Turkey Vultures admitted to the Wildlife Center thus far in 2009.  Both of these birds had been shot. During 2008, the Center treated a total of 2,469 animals, including 11 Turkey Vultures and 11 Black Vultures.  Four of these vultures were gunshot victims.  Vultures and most other birds were given federal protection by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

Since its founding in 1982, the nonprofit Center has cared for more than 50,000 wild animals, representing 200 species of native birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.  The Center’s public education programs share insights gained through the care of injured and orphaned wildlife, in hopes of reducing human damage to wildlife.  The Center trains veterinary and conservation professionals from all over the world and is actively involved in comprehensive wildlife health studies and the surveillance of emerging diseases.