Humans gain a lot of weight after the holiday season in December each year, but it looks like we are not the only ones who are experiencing this problem.
According to the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary in Eastern England, a female little owl that they rescued was too fat to fly.
Rufus Samkin, the head falconer of the group, told CNN that the team rescued and brought in the female owl on January 3, 2020.
At first, the team at the sanctuary thought the owl was injured or was too wet to fly, but after investigating more, they found out that the little bird was having a hard time flying because of her weight.
The team later considered whether the owl had been kept as a pet, but they didn’t find any evidence of that.
The option was ruled out after the owl refused foods that are commonly given to pet birds.
During an interview with CNN, Samkin said, “It’s quite relatable — a plump owl that’s overdone it.”
He added, “We thoroughly examined it and found there was nothing wrong, other than it being extraordinarily overweight. It was very, very plump and very wet.”
He continued, “Owls do have an issue with waterproofing — so if they do get wet they can’t fly as well. But this one couldn’t really fly at all. It was about one third bigger than the average female we’d get — so significantly larger.”
The staff of the sanctuary said the little female owl had a lot of fatty deposits around its thighs and abdomen.
Samkins continued, “When we dug a little deeper and looked into where she was found we discovered the place was crawling with wild mice.”
He went on, “It’s been a really good year for prey species, so I think she’s basically just massively overindulged, got really plump, and then got caught in a wet spell and was too fat to fly.”
The Suffolk Owl Sanctuary kept the owl on a diet for 2 straight weeks so she could go back within the right weight range.
On Monday this week, the owl was released back into the wild where she was found.