Outdoors: Tales of some out-of-the-ordinary animal rescues
Animals doing their thing occasionally require rescue, sometimes after tangling with stuff people use when doing their thing.
Leghold traps baited with deer parts intended to lure coyotes in Madison County instead captured a bald eagle, clamped on wing and foot. Aided by the setter who was cited for illegally trapping over exposed flesh bait, an Ohio Division of Wildlife officer released and then transported the injured raptor to a rehabilitator.
A June storm in Ashland County blew to the ground a nest containing three young eagle chicks not ready to fly. Rescue, rehab and additional growing time soon made a flying success of two birds, while a third that injured a leg in the tumble had to spend added time in flight training.
Investigating the cause of what a caller described as an explosion near power lines in the vicinity of Conneaut Creek, a wildlife officer in Ashtabula County discovered an injured eagle, stunned and unceremoniously grounded.
Three orphaned opossum youngsters alongside a road and a hurting Cooper’s hawk behind a barn got pro bono public transportation on the same summer morning provided by a Licking County wildlife officer to the Ohio Wildlife Center. The initial prognosis for all four was positive.
A mother and child reunion was the almost instantaneous outcome when a fawn stuck between a garage and a wooden fence in Franklin County was made unstuck by a wildlife officer.
After a few months in rehab, a red-tailed hawk was released in Williams County by the driver of a vehicle that in February struck the bird and by the wildlife officer called to the injury scene.
Work on a parking lot in Tiffin got the go-ahead from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service despite the presence of a mallard nest with 13 eggs. Seneca County’s wildlife officer saved the menaced by catching the hen, gathering the eggs and moving the caboodle to a nesting hut out of harm’s way.
A trumpeter swam with an object stuck on its bill hissed before flying off unharmed from a flooded field after being freed of the encumbrance by a Delaware County wildlife officer.
Carelessly disposed fishing line snagged a great blue heron wading the Mad River in Greene County. The lucky bird was captured by helpful kayakers and cut free to fly away by a wildlife officer.
A pretty much immobile Canada goose gosling embedded by a fish hook and wrapped with fishing line tangled in vegetation quickly rejoined the flock on a Crawford County reservoir after being sprung by a wildlife officer.
The garter snake curled up in the window well of a Montgomery County residence freaked the dwellers, who explained to the wildlife officer tasked with moving the harmless snake that they’d recently lived in an area rife with venomous vipers.
A timber rattlesnake more than 40 inches long crawling alongside a Vinton County driveway apparently was as welcome as an inebriated in-law. The rare venomous viper was released nearby after being caught and inspected by the proper authorities.
A doe stuck on a frozen Muskingum River and unable to climb the steep, snowy bank got pulled to safety by a wildlife officer with a rope and the gumption to use it.
Workers arriving in the morning noticed a white-tailed deer generally making a mess had got itself trapped inside a Mount Vernon office building after breaking through a window overnight. The deer was helped to exit through an open door after the lights were turned off and route accesses inside the building blocked with tables, chairs and trash cans.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Outdoors: Some animal rescues require extra help
