Fighting for life: Rescued baby owl gets emergency care after family dies from rat poison

Gwenn Friss Cape Cod Times 

Published Apr 23, 2021

 BARNSTABLE — A baby Great Horned Owl is fighting for its life at the Birdsey Cape Wildlife Center after its nestling and an adult owl died from ingesting what seemed to be rat poison.

“Sadly, one (tainted) mouse brought to the nest and shared with the family could sicken them all,” said Zak Mertz, executive director of the Cummaquid center that is run by New England Wildlife Centers.

The surviving owlet was given a shot of vitamin K and fluids.

Mertz said the owl, which was rescued Wednesday afternoon, seemed to be doing well during a medical exam Friday morning. 

"The owl was very perky, bright and alert, and he was eating," Mertz said. "In our world, if they're eating, that's a very good sign."

The rescued owlet, estimated to be 5 to 8 weeks old (just learning to jump from branch to branch) and weighing 2.53 pounds, ate 5% of his body weight in chopped mice.

The owl saga began April 17, when this bird's sibling was found on the ground near the nest. Despite a blood transfusion from the center's resident educational blind-in-one-eye Great Horned Owl, Thor, the baby did not survive. An adult owl, which officials think is the mother based on its size, was found Wednesday and was dead on arrival at the Birdsey center. Based on bruises and bleeding from the mouth, wildlife experts surmise they died of rat- poison toxicity.

Rodenticide kills rodents by thinning their blood so they bleed to death. Predators, like owls and other raptors, are poisoned when they eat the tainted small mammals, Mertz said. 

“This is a pretty insidious problem on Cape Cod and throughout the state,” Mertz said. “Probably once a week (on the Cape) we see an animal with rodenticide. Red-tailed hawks, owls, anything that makes rodents its prey." The staff even occasionally sees the problem with foxes, he said.

In residence at the center currently are an owl and hawk also recovering from that type of poisoning.

State Rep. James K. Hawkins, D-Attleboro, and Jack P. Lewis, D-Framingham, are in the early stages of co-sponsoring House Bill 3000 to help cut down on rodenticide use.

Mertz said New England Wildlife Centers recommends people close up any holes which give rodents access to a house. If that measure doesn't work, he said, snap traps can be a humane alternative because "at least you are only affecting one animal, not the whole food chain."

The adult owl and baby who died on the Cape were found near a 45-foot tree in a Centerville yard. The homeowner, who asked not to be identified, was not using rat poison. Mertz said the exposure could have come from anywhere since Great Horned Owls hunt up to 1½ miles from their nests.

“There was no food in the nest and this poor owlet was just calling constantly in the daytime, which is not normal,” Mertz said.

With the help of a crew from Mashpee-based Ace Arborculture, Mertz went up in a bucket truck to rescue the owlet.

The creature's blood was clotting more than three times more slowly than normal, with the process taking 20 minutes rather than four to six minutes, Mertz said. 

Katrina Bergman, CEO of New England Wildlife, said wildlife veterinarian Dr. Priya Patel treated the owlet in the hopes it will recover and can be returned to the wild. All of the aid workers have been wearing full owl masks when working with the bird so it doesn’t imprint on the humans.

“We hope to find a foster family for it,” she said. “Owls are good about taking another bird into the nest.”

Bergman said New England Wildlife, which has wildlife care veterinarians on staff for emergencies like these rescues, is constantly fundraising (capewildlifecenter.com) to support the work. Treating one owl costs between $500 and $1,500, she said.