AKTAU (Ruptly) — A resident of Aktau named Alexander found and rescued a rare Eurasian eagle-owl that is listed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species, on December 1.

Alexander said he was driving home from work when he “saw something on the road and stopped. It turned out that it was a big bird: an eagle owl, an owl.” The bird was sitting still in the roadway and showed no reaction. The man called his wife and asked her to find the veterinarian clinic where the bird could be examined by a specialist in case it was injured.

Alexander wrapped the eagle-owl in his jacket, put it in the trunk of his car and drove to the clinic. The veterinarians thanked the man for his help and took in the new “patient”. According to a member of the coordinating committee of the Ramsar Regional Initiative for Central Asia, the bird is under the supervision of specialists.

Such situations are not uncommon during periods of spring and autumn migrations of birds. Locals often pick up wild birds with various injuries. However, as there is no specialised rehabilitation centre for the wild birds in Mangistau region, birds are often released into the wild untreated and become easy prey for predators.

Alexander, the man who rescued the owl says in Russian:

I was driving home, it was the early morning of December 1, the road was slippery with ice, and all cars were driving slowly. There were not many cars. I saw something on the road and stopped. It turned out that it was a big bird: an eagle owl, an owl, I don’t know. I called my wife and explained the situation to her and asked her to find the contacts [of veterinarians], where I could drive the bird, because it was sitting in the middle of the road and was not moving at all, it was not responding in any way, it was just staring, that’s it. It was unclear whether the bird was run over or it was just frozen. I was driving with my colleague, and he gave his working jacket. We wrapped the bird up, put it into the trunk. The bird was not reacting at all, it was calm as if it were domestic. And I drove [to the veterinarian clinic].

[…]

It was early Saturday morning. I didn’t expect to get through. The man picked up the phone and said “Bring the bird here, I know what to do. It is not the first time.” So, we brought the owl there. She [veterinarian] said: “It is good that you brought the bird here. Thank you. We have a cage. We will feed the bird and examine it. If everything is fine, we will let it go.” That’s it.