Tweeters,
The red-tailed hawk that escaped from the zoo on September 3 was finally captured this morning. This bird was thought to be non-releasable due to an injury, but performed very well in our raptor education programs. When he escaped we were concerned that he would not be a successful hunter and hoped that he would soon return. He initially remained in the immediate vicinity, but efforts to trap him were unsuccessful. We observed him defecating on several occasions and began to realize that he was a lot better skilled at surviving than we had imagined. Except that he was wearing leather jesses, which potentially could have entangled him, we began to feel that he could survive. He disappeared for 2-3 weeks during November, then began being seen on or near zoo grounds a couple of weeks ago. He was seen to catch a pigeon and may have been the hawk reported by a jogger to be eating a gull in Lower Woodland Park. We will give this bird a thorough health check, and with what we know about how well this bird has fared the past three months will seriously consider releasing him to the wild, probably near the location he was originally found before being taken to a rehabilatator.

Greg

Greg Toffic
Curator of Birds
Woodland Park Zoo
5500 Phinney Avenue N.
Seattle, WA 98103
(206)684-4836 PH
(206)233-7278 FAX