A Sticky Situation
One day, a cute little screech owl decided to leave its nest in search of food, but destiny had other plans.
He soon found himself in a rather sticky situation that he couldn’t escape from. Click next to see what happened to this poor little creature!
It's A Trap!
The screech owl found himself trapped after he accidentally landed in a glue trap… he was stuck and desperate for help as he couldn’t move his feet nor open his mouth, much less fly away!
How would he ever escape?
No Way Out
In his effort to escape, the little bird began flapping his wings and trying to unstick himself from the glue with his mouth. But little did he know that this only made his situation worse.
Soon, all his wings were covered in glue too! He just couldn’t fly away… until something happened!
Someone Saw Him
Thankfully, a local resident who lived in a small house nearby spotted the owl from a distance. As she got nearer, she noticed the little bird was desperately trying to escape its trap.
She realized she had to act quickly, so she immediately sought expert help.
The Rescue
The woman contacted the Florida Wildlife Hospital, and in a matter of minutes, lead animal care technician Courtney Gerspacher showed up. If it hadn’t been for her, the owl may not have survived at all.
She quickly took him to the hospital, although freeing her from the branch was no piece of cake.
Covered In Glue
Gerspacher confessed that the owl did not look good when she found her stuck in the branch. She had lost several feathers, and had spent too much time without eating.
> “_He was definitely very, very sticky, and you could tell that he’d tried to preen himself and clean off his feathers because his mouth was covered in glue, his head was covered in glue and he couldn’t even open his feet — they were so tacky._”, the doctor said.
It Wasn't Injured!
According to Gerspacher, animals tend to do anything to escape their traps once caught, and sometimes they self-inflict wounds. But fortunately, even though he had lost a few feathers, the owl hadn’t hurt itself while trapped.
> “_Luckily, he hadn’t broken anything, and there weren’t any visible skin tears. A lot of times when animals are stuck in glue traps, they will pull so hard, they will literally break their own bones trying to get free”_, the doctor said.
Time For A Bath
Courtney removed as much of the glue as possible, but she had a hard time making the owl keep still. Then, she decided to give the little owl a bath to make the rest of the glue go away.
However, the little creature didn’t seem to like the idea. “So _he didn’t look too bad … but he didn’t look happy_“, Courtney said.
The Bath
Rescuers tend to be extremely careful when it’s time to clean trapped animals, mostly because of the danger of infection. In this case, for the glue to come out, Courtney had to use several kinds of oils in order to dissolve the glue but without hurting the owl.
> “_We start off with an oil bath. The easiest way to get that tacky substance off of their feathers or skin is to use oil … vegetable oil, canola oil. We use that, avoiding their eyes, of course, and just soak the bird, and work that oil into their feathers_“, ” Gerspacher said.
He Felt Better Afterwards
After the oil bath, the owl had to endure yet another bath with dish soap and plenty of water. The owl didn’t seem to enjoy it either, but surely he felt freer and way more relieved after the bath.
It’s incredibly funny to look at how small he looks when wet. The picture above will definitely surprise you!
Slow Recovery
According to the vet, once he took his first bath, he was able to move his feet again. “He was no longer lying down, and he was a bit feistier(...)
(...) We also rehydrated him and gave him something to eat,“ Gerspacher said.
More Baths, Please
For the course of the following week, the owl had to be given daily baths until every bit of the glue was removed. The thing is that glue traps use a specific kind of superglue that doesn’t come off so easily and requires special care and multiple session to remove.
> “_Usually one bath does not do it because they have so much oil. So it’s a very long process_“, Gerspacher said.
It Was Worth It!
After a week or so, the little bird was almost completely recovered! The animal caretakers decided to put the owl into an outdoor encolure where it could have its own space to practice his flying once again.
Keep on reading to find out how he recovered!
Flying Once Again
The little owl had lost a bit of feathers, so at first, he had a hard time flying. But after trying hard for a couple of hours, “_he proved to us that he was able to fly out in the screen owl cage and catch live prey_,” said the vet.
But this didn’t end here!
Final Tests
The rescuers wanted to make sure that the owl was completely ready to be released into the wild again.
Thus, the vets and rescuers tested if he could fly on its max speed as well as catch some prey such as insects.
Finally Free
At the beginning of the week and after the rescuers had made really sure that the owl would be alright, they decided to release him back into the wild.
They did so in a location very close to where he had been found trapped. Let’s hope this doesn’t happen to him ever again!
Raising Awareness
The Florida Wildlife Hospital was touched by this incident, so they decided to release a statement in order to raise awareness on glue traps as well as other traps that can harm wild animals.
Also, they told the local community to report any traps if they were to find them.
He Was Lucky
Despite these ups and downs, the little screech owl is extremely lucky to be alive.
If it hadn’t been for that random stranger who spotted him at a distance, the little owl would have had almost zero chances of survival.
A Serious Issue
This story should teach us a lesson. It’s important for us humans to adopt a less anthropocentric approach to life. This means we should respect the other species and that we should try out best to protect them from harmful people.
We hope that more and more people will begin to follow the Florida Wildlife Hospital’s guidelines and caution alerts.
Happy Ending
You don’t always get a happy ending when it comes to these stories, but luckily, this good ol’ pal survived and is alive and kicking.“_It’s literally a miracle that that owl made it_“, Gerspacher said.
Let’s hope that no other creature goes through this ever again… it all depends on us!