Neighbors Flock to Rescue a Wounded Owl Tangled Up in Barbed Wire.
Sharon and Scott Jacobs and a passing driver freed a great horned owl from a barbed wire fence near Spearfish, South Dakota, and the bird is now being treated at the Black Hills Raptor Center.
Sharon and Scott Jacobs own an art gallery and brewery in Deadwood. On Thursday they were driving near Spearfish, South Dakota, on their way to an employee meeting when Scott noticed what he thought was a hawk stuck on a barbed wire fence. Sharon, who has rescued horses, cats and dogs, asked him to back up. Up close, she saw it was a great horned owl tangled in the wire.
The owl clicked its beak at her, which the article describes as a way these owls signal a threat or distress. Sharon spoke to it softly, the way she would calm a frightened horse. She asked Scott to find gloves and something to cover the bird's head. They had grocery bags but no gloves. Then a driver named Brandon, a shift manager at Lucky's, stopped, and Scott asked him for gloves.
The men slipped a bag over the owl's head and partly over one wing. The owl barely fought them, Sharon said. The property owner then arrived, a young woman who called her father, and he told them to cut the wire. Brandon happened to have wire cutters in his vehicle. Scott pried one of the owl's feet free, and the bird put its other foot on his gloved hand. Brandon covered it with his sweatshirt, and Scott held it securely.
Sharon had already called her veterinarian, who agreed to meet them at his office. The veterinarian found nothing on the owl that appeared to be broken. He brought out a piece of barbed wire about a foot long with blood on two barbs. He believed the owl had hit or caught on the fence and then twisted itself deeper into the wire while trying to escape, Sharon said.
Sharon also contacted South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks, the Black Hills Raptor Center and Reptile Gardens. “Everybody’s goal was to get this beautiful creature taken care of,” she said. The owl went to the raptor center. Transporter Barbara Alexander told Cowboy State Daily on Friday that it avoided tearing its patagium, the membrane along the leading edge of a wing that is critical to flight. According to Alexander, center director Maggie Engler called that short of a miracle.
The owl was receiving pain medication and antibiotics, and Engler was guardedly optimistic it would heal, Alexander said. If all goes well, it will be released in its familiar territory. Sharon said she intends to be there.
Note: The headline refers to neighbors and a wounded owl. The page describes passersby and a property owner, and it says the owl's recovery is hoped for but not certain.
At a Glance
- The Jacobses found the great horned owl on Thursday near Spearfish, South Dakota, while driving to their Deadwood gallery.
- A driver named Brandon stopped to help and had wire cutters; the property owner's call to her father got approval to cut the fence.
- A veterinarian found nothing that appeared broken, and the owl moved to the Black Hills Raptor Center.
- The owl avoided tearing its patagium, a wing membrane critical to flight, according to center transporter Barbara Alexander.
Sources
This brief was written by Brightside Report from the reporting linked above. Spot an error? Request a correction.