Dangers of the road.

Each year, OWL gets many raptors into care that get hit by vehicles. Some are killed on impact while others suffer from head trauma, broken bones, or eye injuries. A lucky few even come away with no injuries and have a very short stay with us. Depending on how they are injured, many are treated successfully and released back to the wild.

Sometimes there are underlying reasons as to why a raptor may be hit by a vehicle. One thing that can increase this chance is when the animal is poisoned, whether it be lead or rat poison. Both can make birds less coordinated and more likely to fly in a clumsy manner, which makes it easy for them to be hit by a passing car.

How You Can Help

One thing we like to educate the public about to help prevent roadside injuries is to teach people not to throw your compostable food scraps (or any litter) out of your car window. Throwing apple cores, banana peels, and other food items draw prey animals to the side of the road, which in turn brings the predators. This increases their chances of getting hit by cars as the hunt.

Another thing to remember is as the days get shorter and it gets darker earlier when the fall and winter seasons come around, we ask people to be more vigilant to the side of the road in open and forested areas where owls may be hunting. When the nights become longer, the owls become active a lot earlier, which usually means that their are more people driving and more chances for an accident to occur.