Sharp-shinned Hawk Clawed Open by Own Last Meal (Fox News) (1 Viewer)

Terry O'Nolley · Apr 30, 2008

A very strange story. THe Sharpie was found by an animal rescue worker along the side of the road, still alive:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353420,00.html

danehower · Apr 30, 2008

Wow ! - How bizarre !

fugl · May 1, 2008

Unusual, yes, but maybe not all that weird, if we assume the hawk had recently fed and some accident (e.g. a car strike, since the carcass was found by the side of a road) caused the bulging crop to burst open and the claws of the prey to protrude through. Accipiters (AFAIK) pick apart their prey (at least biggish items like birds) rather than swallow it whole, so the likelihood of an ingested sparrow with enough life left in it to be capable of clawing through the crop wall seems vanishingly small. But, stranger things have happened, I suppose.

Terry O'Nolley · May 1, 2008

fugl said:
if we assume the hawk had recently fed and some accident (e.g. a car strike, since the carcass was found by the side of a road) caused the bulging crop to burst open and the claws of the prey to protrude through. Accipiters (AFAIK) pick apart their prey (at least biggish items like birds) rather than swallow it whole, so the likelihood of an ingested sparrow with enough life left in it to be capable of clawing through the crop wall seems vanishingly small.

I was leaning in that direction too. But it seems that an auto collision would have caused more damage. Then again, I haven't seen the MRI or x-rays yet.

fugl · May 1, 2008

Terry O'Nolley said:
I was leaning in that direction too. But it seems that an auto collision would have caused more damage. Then again, I haven't seen the MRI or x-rays yet.

Fair enough, but in my experience death by impact sometimes causes little or no external damage. On several occasions I've found (presumed) avian road kills with no obvious external injuries of any kind. Ditto in 2 cases where birds--a flicker and a kestrel--had killed themselves against a glass door: the only sign of injury displayed by the flicker was a drop of blood at the tip of the bill, while the kestrel appeared completely uninjured until I picked it up and found that its neck had been broken. Obviously, these anecdotes don't prove that the Sharpie died this way though they suggest it could have.

totaljohn · May 2, 2008

reminds me of when they found the python with the gator sticking out of it, i can't remember what brilliant conclusion they ended up coming to on thsat story though, not that it would help much here.

Terry O'Nolley · May 3, 2008

fugl said:
Fair enough, but in my experience death by impact sometimes causes little or no external damage.

Exactly - that is what I was saying. Not having access to x-rays or MRIs, I have no way of knowing the extent of the internal injuries (and they could be massive with no external signs).

Sharp-shinned Hawk Clawed Open by Own Last Meal (Fox News) (1 Viewer)

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