A barb impaled the great horned owl’s left wing when if flew into the unseen wire. The bird was stuck, wings outstretched, in the fence along Smokey Hollow Road.

It was Jan. 31, 8:40 a.m., well past the night predator’s preferred hunting time. Rob Alexander saw its predicament on his way to Sweet Briar College, where he is an associate professor – and about to be late for his environmental issues class.

“Nobody could see this beautiful animal in that situation and not help,” Alexander said. “There was no decision making going on. If an animal needs help, you just do.”

He called his wife, Sheila, already at work in SBC’s development office, for back up. She arrived quickly, and with a carpet knife borrowed from two Virginia Department of Transportation workers who stopped to help, cut the exhausted raptor loose.

“Where the bird was entangled was just a big knot of feathers and barb,” Sheila said. “We got him free and he was so tired he didn’t struggle at all.”

The wing didn’t appear broken, so the rescuers placed the owl near the woods to see if it could fly. It could not, but its legs and formidably taloned feet worked just fine. “We didn’t think about having to catch him again!” Sheila said, although the chase was short-lived.

“When the fellows handed me that owl wrapped in a blanket, I was overwhelmed looking down into those deep, huge, beautiful eyes. He was so calm. I carried him for over an hour – first to Rob’s class to explain why he was late. There was a collective intake of breath when the students saw what I was carrying.”

In a cage in the biology lab, the owl awaited transport to the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro, a nonprofit hospital for native animals and environmental education organization. It appeared alert, its big, yellow orbs staring back at captivated onlookers. Its beak clacked a warning to those who came too close.

Distinctive ear tufts give the great horned owl a fierce countenance. This one was handsome and healthy looking, with typical dark brown and gray mottled feathers. Weighing nearly 4 pounds, the bird was probably female. Like many raptor species, the males are slightly smaller.

Judging from the scent clinging to her feathers, she likely was after a skunk – a favorite food – when she slammed into the barbed-wire fence. Such fences are a common hazard to owls, and the injuries they inflict are often severe. Despite an initial hopeful – though guarded – prognosis, the owl was euthanized after nearly two weeks of treatment.

“We had high hopes for this animal,” WCV director of veterinary services Patti Bright said, explaining that it’s considered unethical to perform surgery on a wild animal to save it for a life in captivity. She and two other staff vets felt the owl could eventually be released, thanks to her extra-feisty temperament.

GHO-65, as she was known to her medical team, needed risky surgery on her lacerated left wing, followed by a long, stressful recovery and physical therapy.

“She had a personality that said, ‘I can handle it.’ This [girl] had a real desire to live,” Bright said. “As soon as you lifted the towel over her cage, she’d immediately start clacking at you. This bird had a bring-it-on attitude.”

More than once she clutched her handlers’ gloved hands in her talons so hard and so doggedly they had to wriggle out of the thick leather gauntlet and administer a light anesthesia to relax her grip.

The surgery was tricky, because if the skin healed too tight, she wouldn’t have enough extension to fly, or to fly silently – an adaptation owls need to hunt successfully. But a week following the operation, the vets noticed the skin was white and cold to the touch. Her circulatory system was too impaired for the wing to heal, a complication that takes time to become apparent. For survival, it would have to be amputated.

Removing the wing eliminated the only chance the owl had left – a career as a non-releasable “education” bird in an environmental outreach program, such as those offered by WCV. Bright explained that out of fairness to the animal, wildlife rehabilitators don’t place amputees in education programs.

Still, Rob Alexander’s instinct that day was the right one, Bright said. Left tangled in the fence, the animal would die from predation, or worse, starvation.

And GHO-65 had a fighting chance. “By far [great horned owls] have the toughest persona of any of the species we see,” Bright, whose center treats everything from flying squirrels to the occasional American alligator, said. “They’re intimidating even to bald eagles.”

The owl the Alexanders nearly saved was no exception. “She really was an amazing bird. That’s one of the things that makes it so tough,” Bright said.

Want to learn more?
Information about birds of prey or about the mission of the Wildlife Center of Virginia and similar organizations is available online at these web sites:

www.wildlifecenter.org
www.carolinaraptorcenter.org
www.nwrawildlife.org
www.iwrc-online.org

To learn how to make fencing safer for wildlife, please visit the Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation web site.

– By Jennifer McManamay, SBC staff writer