Posted on 01/30/2020 9:35:14 AM PST by Red Badger
Suffolk Owl Sanctuary Yesterday at 12:00 AM ·
This soggy little owl was found in a ditch a few weeks ago. Usually in these instances we assume injury of sorts that is preventing the owl from flying - occasionally becoming wet causes them to become grounded too - so you can imagine our surprise that when we examined her, we found her to simply be extremely obese!
Upon weighing her, she was a rather chunky 245g (which is roughly a third heaver than a large healthy female little owl) and she was unable to fly effectively due to the fatty deposits around her body.
This is extremely unusual for wild birds to get into this condition naturally, so we needed to investigate some obvious scenarios - the first being that she was possibly an escaped aviary bird. Sadly there was no indication of rings or chip identification, and asking around in the local area didn’t give us any leads.
We therefore decided to observe the bird over a period of weeks for signs of a life in captivity. Familiarity with common foods used in aviaries such as bright yellow chicks (which won’t often be found naturally in the English countryside) are a telltale sign. Luckily for her, there were no giveaway signs as she was readily taking more wild food types such as dark mice, so we are confident this may just be an unusual case of natural obesity! After further investigation, we also found that the area where she was rescued was crawling with field mice and voles due to the warm and wet winter we experienced in December.
She has since spent a few weeks with us under observation and been placed on a strict diet. We can now happily say she has trimmed down to a more natural weight for release.
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Jan. 29 (UPI) -- Animal rescuers in Britain said an owl found stranded in a ditch was initially feared to be injured, but turned out to be merely too fat to fly.
The Suffolk Owl Sanctuary said a member of the public reported spotting a possibly injured owl stranded in a ditch a few weeks ago, but rescuers took the female bird for an examination and discovered she wasn't injured, just overweight.
The sanctuary said the owl, who they named Plump, weighed 8.6 ounces, about 1/3 heavier than the average weight for a healthy female of her species.
Officials said they initially suspected Plump may have lived in captivity or received food from humans, but her eating habits at the sanctuary showed she prefers the dark mice she would feast on in the wild, indicating her weight is "an unusual case of natural obesity."
The area where Plump was found was discovered by rescuers to have an unusually high population of mice and voles.
Plump was put on a two-week diet and lost nearly 1 1/2 ounces, enough to allow her to be released back into the wild.
Is the owl’s name Kevin Smith?
This story doesn’t surprise me at all. Because back in 1994 Al Gore predicted that Global Warming would cause owls to get fat.
I guess we can’t fat shame owls anymore... What is this world coming too...
Owls are neat critters. Good hunters.
The owl is silent, Bob.................
This one must be exceptional.....................
Was that before or after he invented the internet?
Too fat to fly? What’s an American Owl doing in Britain?
They actually ran that commercial over the weekend.....................
Rosie owl?...................
Sounds like a good title for a Nadler Bio.
Put her on Michele Obama’s school lunches.
She’ll fly off in no time.
Manager Nadler. ...
Nice find, adds to using FR
It’s a burrowing owl. If it can fit in a burrow, it’s probably good ‘til it loses a little weight.
This thread needs a recipe.
If Joe Burrow played for Rice.
Apparently, a VERY good hunter... :^)
Never realized how many different types of Owls there are.
Check it out.
https://www.audubon.org/magazine/january-february-2015/whos-who
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