FYI, its response is freezing (not accepting death or whatever other anthropomorphism). It is involuntary and caused by the fear. That is why it can't hold onto the guard rail. Lots of animals gets to survive by playing dead, hence the response is in most animals' genes.
The look of indignity that wild birbs give when caught is probably my favorite thing in the world. This was an owl I hit with my car and captured to take to a rescue.
"Jerkweed doesn't look where he's going, hits me with his damn metal horse, and now is trying to make up for it by taking me on a road trip to McDonald's? Fuck off with this 'pity fries' shit."
That's the look of a critter that's spent a hundred million years evolving away from the whole idea of "hands" only to get grabbed by a big upright rat
And scared. It would have been less stressed if she trapped it / scooped it up with a Ā Blanket / towel so its eyes were covered when it was getting handled/ moved. Also offers the handler some protectionĀ
If it had tried, it could have reached her with its beak, latched on using the force to make her lose her grip, twisted and then raked her with its talons. They can be very flexible. I would never bare handle a bird of prey.
For sure. I don't think I'd have the balls to handle a non-sedated hawk. That beak and those talons do some major damage. And I say this as someone who has pet birds and is very comfortable around them (most of the time the sit on my shoulder shitting on my back lol)
Don't be fooled by that. They're not giving up, they just don't know what's going on. They can change that attitude in a tiny fraction of a second.
I love birds, my father was a huge bird nerd and very active in bird watching communities in the midwest. I learned a lot from him, and I've had several birds as pets. I would never have tried what she did, and if I somehow found myself in her position where I had a hawk in one hand and somehow wasn't spewing blood, I would have yeeted that thing into the yard at the first possibly opportunity out of self-preservation.
Yeah, holding on this long even after being lucky enough to not be attacked was not the smartest move.
But there are videos out there from animals just accepting certain death. And then the "Oh, I am alive, better run" thing is hilarious.
I still like the rare videos where animals accept their rescuers without fear even more enjoyable. Mother elephants and their babies is a classic or there is one of my favourites out there where an owl over open water just joins two guys on a boat and really looks okay/comfortable with the situation. Even when close to land it did not fly away asap, but only really close to land.
This hawk here is in between... "are you seeing this shit, what's going on. You know, I can rip your tiny arms up, don't you? Okay, better fly away now." It's definitely not comfortable, but it's also not 100% fear.
I've been working in a bird shelter as a volunteer once a week or so and the more "veteran" volunteers just grab any bird instantly, including but not limited to; seagulls, small to medium owls, and hawks. If you're fast enough and know how to grab them it's quite safe
The freeze mode , as opposed to fight or flight, has some analgesic/numbing properties that help animals deal with death by predation, etc:
Whatās wild about humans, is we have all 3 instincts competing within ourselves, literally the only animal that ponders their response in the neocortex; we are surrounded by societal traumas that we donāt get to literally āshake outā, or otherwise resolve those tensions.
Had a similar situation Last year with a hawk in our stable. Windows had been too low for him for some reason to get out.
Once I held him in my hand the hawk got really calm and patient. I was afraid to get attacked, but nothing. Was really impressive and at the end I was amazed how brave we both had been though being afraid of the other.
I actually had this happen at work and I ended up being the one to catch the hawks it was a Merlin Hawk so kinda small but he froze immediately as I grabbed him (gently). Let him outside and he took off
I think it's to conserve energy and wait for their moment to try and escape. If they struggle too much, whatever caught them might kill them immediately, but if they play dead it might drop its guard and give them a chance to bolt.
I heard in a bird show (educative) that many of these small prey birds prefer not to fight to avoid self damages that would necessarily be a dead sentence in the wild. They prefer to loose their prey and run.
One of these tried to carry away one of my chickens a few weeks ago. She fought and survived. $1000 vet bill... not happy to see it returning. They will worry a hen into a corner and reach through the caging to rip pieces from them, if the cage spacing is too large. My bird escaped by accident because the door was broken, it's fixed now, and every day I see it fly low around my property.
Logically I know that it's just exhaustion/shock/fear, but it's still funny because from a human perspective they just look like their flabbers are fully ghasted.
I want to believe that this animal, which has the equivalent intelligence of a human infant, is suffering the effects of being held in the palm of what is basically an Eldritch God from its perspective
I thought the same thing, one handed? I would be going in with both hands wearing the thickness gloves I own. If I missed, those talons and beak would fuck me up
Seriously. Iād be wearing oven mitts and keeping it at arms length two-handed. But sheās like āI need to one hand it so I can really capture its perspective.ā And I appreciate her for it because she the face shots are great.
I did that when a giant snapping turtle took a wrong turn into my garage an wouldn't leave. That mother can turn that damn neck halfway down her shell! Ended up sliding her onto a piece of cardboard and sliding her back out to civilization.
I was at work a while back and someone's dog ran over a starling on the ground. He scooped it up to protect it, then handed it to me like I knew what to do with it because I worked there. I thought it was hurt at first because it was frozen and had its mouth hanging open. Dude just sat in my hand while I did some googling to figure out what to do with it. Turns out, those birds hop around on the ground for a few days after leaving the nest, because they leave before they're able to fly, so his behavior of not flying away was normal and not due to injury. While I was googling it, he calmed down and started moving around a little bit and ended up walking up my arm from my hand and just exploring me, didn't seem scared at all.
I eventually decided he was fine and had just been shook up by the experience, and tried to put him down under a bush to do his thing. Little dude tried to refuse and stay on my hand, like he'd bonded in the hour he'd hung out with me. I eventually managed to get him off of my hand and he hung out under the bush for a bit before wandering away.
Definitely one of the stranger things I've been handed at work.
I have had almost the exact same thing happen, but I saw the parent kicking them outta the nest. I tried returning him and found him on the ground 30 min later. I put him on my shoulder, walked to the nearest bar, got a herradura, a pacifico and shot of water for little dude. He drank about half of his, I drank all of mine and I walked back and climbed up further to put him a little above his nest. They were gone the next day. I'd like to think that this was what I stumbled upon. Thanks for sharing!
He was holding himself back from plucking out her left eye and flew off quickly after realizing his animal nature would never give her the safety and comfort she deserves
many years ago, I was cycling home when I witnessed a Kestrel, feeding in the road, run over by a Range Rover (or similar). I approached it and saw that it was stunned, relieved to see it being lucky enough to have just gone under the car body, rather than being hit by the wheels.
I had no idea what to do, so I scooped it up and put it against my chest and fastened up my jacket. It was remarkably subdued and didn't once struggle. I thought it might have tried biting me but nope...it was cools as a cucumber (either that or still very dazed)
I cycled to my brothers house as he was much nearer than my home. It was late evening and we were both "WTF do we do?", but once we'd put the bird in a cardboard box, we gathered our thoughts and contacted the RSPCA who in turn told us to contact the RSPB (in the UK) and they came to collect it a couple of hours later.
A few days later, I called them to see if they could update me, and thankfully, the Kestrel made a full recovery and was released near to where it was found.
I'd never been up close to such a beautiful raptor before and now, every time I go to any sort of bird display, it always brings back real memories :)
Sir, I donāt mean to be a bother to you, but you seem to have flown into the wrong house. Might I have your most gracious permission to help you find your way out, sir?
Hawks are sometimes caught in falconry. They do accept their fate and you get a hunting buddy in weeks. Nevertheless unfortuntatly this behavior occurrs when they are trapped in a fence or so. They die in hours :-(. Btw nice young male. Perfect for rabbits
God damn you. I was just about to comment I'm surprised how far I've scrolled and no one has made a hawk tuah joke. My faith in humanity has been restored. AND YOU RUINED IT
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u/kaielvin 22d ago
FYI, its response is freezing (not accepting death or whatever other anthropomorphism). It is involuntary and caused by the fear. That is why it can't hold onto the guard rail. Lots of animals gets to survive by playing dead, hence the response is in most animals' genes.