Two Calgary police officers became quite smitten with an injured owl they saved from a downtown sidewalk and brought to a wildlife rehabilitation centre on Wednesday.
Constables Paul Fisher and Alexe Razvan responded to an animal complaint in the downtown core and found several concerned passersby surrounding an injured owl being picked at by magpies.
“Well, we saw the little owl, she was laying on the sidewalk not moving, obviously alive and her eyes were opening and closing, obviously afraid. We weren’t sure how injured she was,” Fisher told Global News.
The two officers were quite taken with the great horned owl. In a video taken by Fisher, Razvan is seen kissing the owl’s head as he cuddles the docile bird in his jacket.
“It was obvious that she had some sort of an injury and we sort of suspect that she flew into the building,” Razvan said, adding the bird wasn’t opposed to being swaddled and placed in the box.
Razvan, the more hands-on of the two, was the one to actually scoop the owl up, saying he wasn’t afraid if the owl scratched or bit him in the process.
“It’s two or three years old by my understanding, but it’s a pretty good size, has pretty good talons and a good beak,” Razvan said. “But super cool to be able to hold it.”
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The pair took the owl to the Calgary Wildlife Rehabilitation Society, where they’d taken other animals in the past.
“We have a pretty good… track history with that, so we are the animal complaint guys wherever we can,” Razvan said.
“Cats, dogs, rabbits… pigeons… owls now. I’ve never saved an owl before… that’s a first.”
Jennifer McFarland at the rehabilitation centre said the owl was suffering from significant head trauma, likely from striking a window or building.
“In the condition that she was in when she was brought in, she probably wouldn’t have survived the rest of the day had she not been brought into the hospital,” McFarland said.
She commended the officers for bringing the owl to them, adding that when members of the public bring animals to their centre, it saves time for staff who otherwise would have to go fetch the injured animal themselves.
“We get help from all over the city – we’ve got fish and wildlife officers, police officers, firefighters and then just regular citizens that help us out,” she said. “These particular officers have been at our facility before, so it’s nice to see them again.”
McFarland said the prognosis for the owl is good if it can survive through the night.
As for Fisher and Ravzan, they’re just happy they could help the bird feel safe and secure on its trek to the animal hospital.
“Hopefully she is going to make a recovery and, you know, go and catch some mice I guess,” Ravzan said.