The great horned owl at the Black Hills Raptor Center is a fully wild bird. She got into some sort of trouble in the wild and self-amputated her right wing at the wrist joint. Consequently, she cannot fly, cannot hunt effectively, and is with us for the rest of her natural life. That doesn't mean she is willing to submit easily. This is their breeding season and in the last few winters, a male great horned owl has been coming around.
We figured she was climbing the fencing in her housing looking for a way sneak off with him when she got herself tangled. Maggie, the other co-founder of this organization, found her this morning hanging by a leg and the good wing. She got the bird loose, but it needed two of us to do an exam to see if she had sustained any injuries. One to hold the bird's dangerous bits, while the other seeks to avoid being bitten all the while poking and prodding. Maggie elected to hold and I bit my tongue, this NEVER has ended well in the past and I had no hope of it ending well this time. But, I let her.
In a twinkling, Icarus, the great horned owl had latched her beak onto the skin of my right hand and Maggie lost a grip on one foot. That foot then immediately found the meat of the underside of that very same hand and buried the talons to the bone.
The pinprick on the meaty edge of my hand is bad enough, but the other one is directly above the valley in the palm where the main tendons lie as well as the very critical nerves that operate EVERYTHING! Lucky for me, the talon hooked and curved away from all the critical stuff and just pierced meat.
Now, when an owl grabs something in their feet they lay on a good hard grip. If it does not immediately kill the prey, the muscles and ligaments are able to "ratchet" down an order of magnitude at a time until such time as the prey dies and the muscles go limp. So, if you take a hit, go limp as a noodle. Got it? Your other choice is to lay the affected body part on the ground and allow the bird to (hopefully) choose to let go and take off. You are NOT going to be able to pull the toes up as they have a total grip strength of 240 lbs (30 lbs of grip per talon X 8 talons).
We tried again with ME holding the bird in restraint and Maggie doing the exam. Icarus is just fine. Madder than a wet cat, but fine anyway. Me? Well, the gal at the Urgent Care said she remembered me from a program I did years ago and LOOOOOOVED the great horned owl! I got a tetanus shot and it hurts like hell. My hand is fine. However, I find I am craving field mice.
