The Great Horned Owl of Chestertown, captured lurking outside the police station last month and sent to a bird rescue facility, has flown on to the happy hunting grounds.
In truth, he (or she) didn’t last long after being netted, boxed and driven to the TriState Bird Rescue and Research Clinic in Delaware, where it was thoroughly checked for disease and wounds — and euthanized.
Though it didn’t look in bad shape to the captors, according to Dr. Sallie Welte, a veterinarian and clinic director, this was one very sick bird. It was underweight, infested with parasites, anemic and both eyes were damaged.
The handful of Chestertownians who captured the owl thought it seemed okay except for being quiet and not flying away. But those were two significant clues.
“A Great Horned Owl should really take your head off if it’s healthy,” says Welte. “This guy was very underweight, quiet, wasn’t clacking, wasn’t showing aggression. He was hanging on.”
Also, where he was found is an indicator of sickness. Says Welte, “These guys are at the top of the food chain and if they are hunting in a real public area or along a roadway, usually they are inexperienced or compromised.”
This wasn’t an inexperienced bird. It was adult. Welte can’t say, however, whether it was male or female. You can’t tell the sex of an adult owl unless DNA testing is done.
One factor doomed it: the eyes. Welte said when she looked in the back of the eye she saw scarring, which affects vision.
“Great Horned Owls will eat anything dead or alive,” she says. “As a result they often ingest parasites that are in the prey species. Some of those cause damage to the back of the eye.”
More likely though, says the veterinarian, it could have been West Nile Virus infections. While mention of the disease may alarm, it has become so common that the state of Maryland no longer runs tests for it for this clinic. So in this case it remains only a possibility.
Welte says the owl was infested with lice and flat flies. “Grooming keeps those in control,” she says. “It wasn’t feeling well enough to keep its feathers in good shape. And birds, like cats, spend a great deal of time keeping themselves clean.”
And lastly, this bird had puncture wounds in both feet. There were maggots in the wounds.
“He had grabbed something that had fought back at some point,” Welte reports. It wasn’t likely an owl-on-owl fight because the species sets territories in December and have their first babies in mid-March.
“Even squirrels, if the owl is weak and can’t get a tight clamp with its claws, will turn around and bite him,” Welte says.
TriState Bird Rescue is brought some 3,000 native birds every year. About 12 percent are raptors. It is able to release back into the wild about half of the birds that come in. The others die or are euthanized. A few birds are placed somewhere for education purposes.
“We placed a young screech owl that came in with an eye injury that caused him no discomfort but would have affected his ability to hunt,” says Welte.
But, an older bird like the Chestertown owl, one with arthritis, or living in pain, is not a good candidate for life on a perch. The clinic must consider whether it is suitable for living in captivity for 30 years, which a Great Horned Owl may do.
“The reality is,” Welte says, “if we do make heroic efforts we may not have the resources to pull another bird through. So we have to make tough decisions.”
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