From Owls in Towels
Luna the Spectacled Owl at Belize Raptor Center @belizeraptorcenter
"Luna is our residential matriarch raptor, going on 30 years wise, and was a successful apex predator for a quarter of a century before running into a barbed wire fence. She's non-releasable due to resulting wing injury.
"She is an exquisite educational ambassador at the center."
Many thank-yous to Elena Calderone for sharing these great pics of Luna at BRC. Elena included the following info:
"In those photos she was wrapped like a burrito so we could cope her beak as it had gotten a bit too long"
Indeed, owl beaks keep growing. Their talons too, and just like human hair and fingernails, they need the occasional trim. In the wild this excess growth tends to exfoliate naturally when they're out hunting and scavenging, picking meat from bones etc.
But in captivity? Owls (and other birds of prey) work a little less hard for their food. Less wear and tear means the keratin builds up, and growth is spurred along by nutrient-rich diets. So carers often use tools to trim and shape (aka "cope") their beaks to maintain proper function and health for the birds. The brand-agnostic rotary tool in the foreground is one such coping instrument.
Elena added "She was so mad 😄"
Before
After
The squirrels are not barrel sized, we just toss them in a barrel about waist high while we clean out their kennels. It looks roughly like this. It's tall to try to keep them from jumping out. There's usually 5 per pen, and they're often hangry teen squirrels at the point they're in the pen/barrel so they can be quite grumpy.
I try to share the good stories. I don't often have a free hand and the animals don't like to sit still because they're wild animals forced to be close to humans so they're uncomfortable, and we're usually short staffed so I'm focusing on getting as much done with my time as I can, but there are things that are just too cute to not get a quick pic of. Plus with all the regulations involved, I don't want to accidentally share something that could cause an issue, so I have to be mindful.
I just today got the volunteer email to resubmit all my new forms for the year (we have children onsite for programs so we need a background check) so I need to get my blood test to make sure my rabies vaccine took, and then I'll be able to work with all the animals we get, so I can feed the raccoons, foxes, skunks, etc that have the potential to carry rabies.
My goal for this year is to get some of the flying squirrels to release at my house! 😁
I mean, yeah, I know they aren't barrel-sized, lol. I just worded my thoughts poorly.
Thanks for sharing all of that, though. Sounds like an amazing program. I look forward to your next "too cute to pass up" post.
Have a great new year!
You as well!