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
Ooooo she big mad. Much angry.
Cute af tho.
Some parts of the beauty regimen are easier than others 😅
That is one angry burrito.
Our educational birds get coped by someone other than their handlers so the birds don’t hold grudges against them. 😁
“Your job is to be the eternal focus of hatred from this razor clawed flying animal.”
Honestly, that’s the job for most of us. Only the animal ed people are spared, as they need the cooperation to do their programs.
The big birds are more obviously intimidating, but if you’ve never had to reach your arm into a barrel of furious squirrels before, even that is a bit scary! They’re cornered and hissing, spitting, and biting like a tornado of feral tiny cats with iron reinforced teeth. A healthy wild animal wants nothing to do with us and isn’t afraid to show it.
But they’re still cute 🥰
I didn’t know squirrels came in barrel size, and now I want a barrel of squirrels. lol.
Would love to see some more pictures from what you do. Sounds like an amazing place to work.
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!
Oh, I never knew that about their beaks, very interesting.
She does look like she is prepared to kill someone hahah
Their talons can grow too long also, and like the other commenter said, they like getting those trimmed about as much as a cat or dog does.
The “I will kill you, hooman” face definitely transcends species
Reminds me of trying to clip an elderly cats nails… I swear they think you’re trying to kill them lol.
If any other animal built like a massive predator was handling them in a similar way, that would be what was going on.
A lot of normal behaviors for us mean very different things to them. Many humans enjoy many types of physical contact, but most animals don’t do that kind of stuff.
the front just fell off
