Burrowing cats
Jul. 8th, 2003 05:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
As you may have heard, the bald eagle at the Washinton DC national zoo died on the 4th of July. The death is currently under investigation.
The following articles attribute the death to Burrowing Cats. I did a search on Google to see if I could find any instances of Burrowing Cats (besides these articles), and you know what? I couldn't find any! This does not mean they don't exist (mine certainly burrow under the covers), but still...
This is about the 10th death at the National zoo. As a conspiracy theorist, I am forced to suspect there's more to this than meets the eye. Like maybe a disgruntled employee wanted someone's job, didn't get it, and is trying to make someone look bad by killing the animals. Or maybe there is a psycho on staff. Or maybe they're being poisoned with Spider Milk. Or something. But I don't think it's Burrowing Cats. No, no I don't.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13678-2003Jul5.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23447-2003Jul7.html
The following articles attribute the death to Burrowing Cats. I did a search on Google to see if I could find any instances of Burrowing Cats (besides these articles), and you know what? I couldn't find any! This does not mean they don't exist (mine certainly burrow under the covers), but still...
This is about the 10th death at the National zoo. As a conspiracy theorist, I am forced to suspect there's more to this than meets the eye. Like maybe a disgruntled employee wanted someone's job, didn't get it, and is trying to make someone look bad by killing the animals. Or maybe there is a psycho on staff. Or maybe they're being poisoned with Spider Milk. Or something. But I don't think it's Burrowing Cats. No, no I don't.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13678-2003Jul5.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23447-2003Jul7.html
(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-08 02:51 pm (UTC)It fits with how all of the other animals died (neglect, food-related or poisoning issues). Burrowing cats, indeed. I liked how the Forest Service came right out and said the 'bobcat' theory was pure bullshit.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-08 03:14 pm (UTC)I don't think it was a 'possum. Or a bobcat. It was savaged by something, though. Not a "large housecat"; I don't think even a healthy Maine Coon would be able to pull it off, at least not without leaving a shitload of telltale fur behind. And that's about the only housecat that gets big enough to even consider taking on even a sick bald eagle. As for "burrowing"... anything that can burrow under the fence like that will leave one hell of a hole. And it would have done it before, which would mean the bird could have gotten out before -- and eagles are quite capable of scruffing in the dirt, they're bloody scavengers and often eat things like snakes and rabbits in the wild. Try to catch -those- without going in a hole or two... so much for the "burrowing" theory.
It's worth pointing out that it's the DC zoo. Which has no admission fee and you can pretty much walk into at any time. The gates are closed at night... which means jack, really, it's just that no one really wants to go after a zoo. I do wonder if they might not find BB pellets in some of those "claw wounds."
And then there's the irony of it dying on the 4th...
Re:
Date: 2003-07-08 04:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-08 05:02 pm (UTC)Honestly, it'd be near-impossible to trace who it might have been. Too many humans...
Re:
Date: 2003-07-08 04:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-08 05:20 pm (UTC)Granted, the birds was a permanent cripple already from what I understand and would have been used to working with humans due to its rehabilitation and its subsequent stay at the zoo, but unless most of the injuries were made postmortem the eagle still would have reacted VERY violently to the attack.
(I used to volunteer at an avian rehab center here in south jersey when I was younger, so I know firsthand how violently raptors can react when they're injured.)
(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-09 12:07 am (UTC)I'm wondering if they neglected to mention a broken neck on the poor eagle, frankly. You can do a lot to a bird after you wring its neck, and it'd be easy to do if the eagle was used to humans.
I just feel so sorry for the poor thing.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-09 01:43 pm (UTC)Sadly, though, I get the feeling that if the bird was murdered by a human it's neck was not broken... for a human to leave behind a corpse that could be described as "savaged" implies a large amount of cruelty and even some sort of rage behind their actions, IMO, and I would think that such a person would be more likely to leave the bird alive during the act. I think it would be more... satisfying... for a person with that sort of motivation. Then again, I may simply have watched too many crime shows involving profiling of murderers. *chuckles*
(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-09 01:45 pm (UTC)... anyone consider a were-bobcat zoo employee or former employee? ;-)
(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-09 02:46 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-07-09 03:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-07-09 02:50 pm (UTC)Hm. The poor bird was alive, you're right; it was found badly injured and died about ten the next morning, not found dead.
The eagle wasn't capable of flight, incidentally, not as wild eagles are. I saw it when I went to the zoo on a date once. It'd had a broken wing. It could flutter around and sort of do extended gliding hops, but the wing was... badly injured. That may have even been the eagle with the amputated wing, I can't remember if that was the Baltimore or DC zoo.
Re:
Date: 2003-07-09 03:15 pm (UTC)If the bird was a permanent cripple with a broken wing, then it being caught on the ground by a predator is even more suspicious in my opinion... usually raptors with broken wings like that are kept in pens where they have ramps and platforms they can walk up to hop up into a branch or constructed perch of some sort. Their talons are not really built for extended time walking on the ground, so without such a setup it could have developed problems with the pads of its feet. That's avoided by giving it access to a branch-like object it can wrap its talons around and perch on.
age tends to kill things too
Date: 2003-07-09 04:05 pm (UTC)-t
Re: age tends to kill things too
Date: 2003-07-09 04:29 pm (UTC)I'm not ruling out coincidence - but there have been so many non-age-related deaths in the past two years with causes ranging from starvation to puncture wounds to poisoning.
Most people would never hurt animals. But it's starting (emphasis on the word starting) to look kind of weird (to me).