When a homeowner spotted a vulture sitting on the ground on her property, she had a feeling he needed help. She contacted Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center, and Janine Tancredi, director of the center, responded to the call.
The rescue
named the vulture Gomez and began assessing his injuries. He had a broken wing that was going to need surgery, but staffers noticed he was also acting funny. He was wobbly and seemed off, and after some testing, they discovered the poor bird was also suffering from lead poisoning.
Gomez underwent chelation therapy to treat the lead poisoning and surgery to repair his broken wing. At that time, there were no other vultures in the rescue’s care. Vultures are social creatures and live in groups, and they were worried the sweet bird might get lonely. They decided to give him a stuffed vulture to keep him company — and he loved it more than they ever imagined.
“He took to them immediately,” Tancredi told The Dodo. “Literally ran right up and snuggled in.”
Before long, Gomez had a whole fleet of stuffed vultures to keep him company, and now he’s pretty much always with them.
“We have some in his outside enclosure and some in his inside enclosure so he always has friends,” Tancredi said.
Gomez still has a ways to go in his recovery. He is still unable to fly, and it’s unclear at this time whether or not he’ll be able to return to the wild. In the meantime, something incredible happened — another vulture arrived at the rescue.
Gizmo also came in with a broken wing, and the rescue staff introduced the new vulture to Gomez as soon as they could.
“To see Gomez's reaction to another turkey vulture has been absolutely heartwarming,” Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center wrote on Facebook. “And judging by his excitement, we think he's just as thrilled as we are!”
Gomez still loves his stuffed turkey vultures very much, but now he also has a real life friend to share that love with.
