Two colleagues have rescued a rare eagle owl from a barbed wire fence in the village of Sint-Martens-Bodegem near Dilbeek, Flemish Brabant. Evelyne and her colleague Tom were travelling in their work’s van when Tom spotted the eagle owl. The rare bird’s wing was stuck on barbed wire and as the fence is electrified the unfortunate creature was also receiving electric shocks. The two colleagues sprung into action and were able to free the bird.
They told VRT News that “We didn’t want to hurt him, but we had to pull hard. It was a lot of stress to start the day with, but it was nice to be able to help the bird”.
It’s not every day that you free an eagle owl from a barbed wire fence. Evelyn and Tom were travelling in their van when they spotted the bird. Evelyn told VRT News that “Suddenly my colleague saw the owl hanging in the barbed wire. We stopped immediately. The owl’s wing was jammed stuck and it was receiving electric shocks”.
Evelyn and Tom got to work on rescuing the bird straight away. Evelyn told VRT News that “I was able to push down the electric cable with my work shoes while Tom freed the eagle owl. The bird stayed really calm. It wasn’t easy because we didn’t want to hurt him”.
With the owl wrapped up in a jersey they two colleagues drove home. “There my neighbour kept an eye on the owl and found a bird sanctuary for it”. The owl was taken to the bird sanctuary in Malderen (Flemish Brabant)
Franky, who works at the bird sanctuary told VRT News that “An exceptional find, particularly as it is a wild eagle owl. At first glance, the injury doesn’t look too bad. The muscles and ligaments haven’t been affected and the flesh wound is fresh. Thankfully Evelyn and Tom were there quickly”.
After a visit to the vet the eagle will be able to recover further at the sanctuary. Once it is well enough the eagle owl will be released back into the wild.