Man Forced to Escape From Injured Bird He Rescued
This Man Ended Up Having To Escape The Injured Bird He Rescued
By Aimee LutkinUpdated Oct. 31 2018, 5:13 p.m. ET
We've all seen those commercials of workers rescuing wildlife that have been injured by an oil spill or wildfire, so it's natural to want to channel your inner Steve Irwin and save all the animals. However, it's not as easy as it seems (no matter how many times you have watched the Discovery Channel) and often times, rescuing wild animals is a dangerous game. Like really, really dangerous. They do need care, but they are not usually on board with you about going to get it.
BBC reporter Matt Graveling tweeted about his adventure rescuing a red kite, which is a raptor bird with teeth and a beak to match. His first picture shows a sleeping stunned baby, and his last pic shows an angry demon. Here's the timeline as he describes it:
2:30pm - Driving to filming location 2:45pm - Pick injured bird off the road and put in car. 3:00pm - Unconscious bird wakes up. 3:01pm - Escape from car 3:02 - 6:29pm - Unable to get back in car. 6:30pm - RSPCA turn up to take away the angry, injured bird.2:30pm - Driving to filming location
2:45pm - Pick injured bird off the road and put in car.
3:00pm - Unconscious bird wakes up.
3:01pm - Escape from car
3:02 - 6:29pm - Unable to get back in car.
6:30pm - RSPCA turn up to take away the angry, injured bird.
Just another day pic.twitter.com/XRkN2daaZ7
— Matt Graveling (@mattgraveling) April 12, 2018But let's see it from the bird's perspective.
First, you're just sleeping:
You wake up a little confused and ruffled:
Now you're on the alert. WTF is happening?
BITE BITE BITE!
People love this little dude's gumption, but a lot of animal rescuers are trying to give tips in the comments, in case anyone tries to do what Graveling did:
tip for anyone with future animal emergencies - don't bother with the rspca, they are spectacularly useless much of the time, and they kill many pet animals they take in unless they are easy to rehome or there's a TV camera nearby. Contact local wildlife/pet rescues instead.
— Kirsty Farnfield ♿️ (@scrapchallenge1) April 13, 2018*a quick google "wildlife rescue <my location>" for wildlife and "animal rescue <my location" for generic pets etc, or even pet specific rescues eg "<dog breed rescue><my country>"
— Kirsty Farnfield ♿️ (@scrapchallenge1) April 13, 2018in addition other species have specialist rescues -parrots/exotic birds, fish, reptiles, mice, rats, hamsters etc. I've adopted rescue mice from @FarplaceRescue , Primrose Mouse Rescue, Austin's Hamster Haven and @StarlightTrust. Only 1 of these was a dedicated mouse rescue.
— Kirsty Farnfield ♿️ (@scrapchallenge1) April 13, 2018See the excellent towel use there. Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy was right, always have an old towel in my car. Used it to wrap an injured cat which did a similar thing to your rescued bird, got it to vets before it was lively enough to escape towel!
— Blank (@allib4273) April 13, 2018They're also swapping stories of their own successful swaps:
I've also rescued/rehabbed a fair bit of wildlife. 3 baby pipistrelle bats my biggest challenge (had licence to handle certain protected species as many lived in my former home, gardens/farm :)
— Lady Robin Budd (@ladyrobinbudd) April 14, 2018Snap! 😆 I was a volunteer for Durham Bat Group & my old home had a maternity roost of over 550 common & soprano pipistrelles. These are some babies I was hand raising. (For others: never touch a bat without a license, contact rescue for assistance). pic.twitter.com/iVhd7i41VN
— Kirsty Farnfield ♿️ (@scrapchallenge1) April 14, 2018Excellent! Friend once popped stunned owl from roadside into car and headed to wildlife sanctuary, owl came round and insisted on clinging onto his left arm with force & preventing his changing gear the whole journey...
— Darty's back on the farm... (@darty_sp) April 13, 2018Had a similar incident with a cormerant though that didn't escape it just kept trying to bite me and my mum when ever she changed gears!
— Thomas Embleton (@thomas_embleton) April 13, 2018I once had a similar experience with an injured owl. It escaped from my kitbag in the footwell, having done a poo in it, and then started hissing at me as I drove at 70mph on A1. #NeverAgain
— The Ruminating Sheep (@resurgentsheep) April 13, 2018I pulled over, threw a towel over the owl's head and got it back in the bag. The RSPCA + owl sanctuary got it fit again and it was released. The bag was beyond repair!
— The Ruminating Sheep (@resurgentsheep) April 14, 2018Mate of mine once had this late night with an otter he'd clipped. Panic, flailing, total bitey destruction of passenger seat.
— Lou Kellett (@LouKellett) April 12, 2018But most just have their jokes to share:
No good deed goes unpunished.
— David Gullen (@derGullen) April 13, 2018Still getting birds into your car I see...
— Chris Williams (@cw1uk2) April 12, 2018And the moral of the story is ... dont pick up random birds off the side of the road 😂
— PCSO Louise BORMAN (@PCSOLouise) April 13, 2018Bird is slang for a woman in the U.K. Honesty, if I woke up like that in someone's car, I'd scare them right out of the driver's seat, too.
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