A goshawk gets treated by Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital after being shot
After some days, the goshawk was found on the side of the road thanks to the safring.
An injured sub-adult pale chanting goshawk (melierax canorus) was recently rescued twice by the Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital thanks to being tagged with a Safring.
Safring is a form of bird ringing or banding whereby registered ringers permanently mark wild birds to study their lifecycles (births, deaths, age of breeding and survival rates, habits, populations, and movements).
The goshawk was first brought to the hospital by the Bloemfontein SPCA and a medical examination revealed the bird had a puncture wound to the chest as well as fractured right phalanges.
Radiographs were taken of the goshawk and it was discovered it had been shot with a pellet gun.
The founder, director, and head veterinarian at the hospital Dr Karin Lourens said the pellet did not have to be removed.
“These lead pellets only become a problem when they are ingested or if they are in bone marrow, while in other places, the body encapsulates the pellet and it becomes innocuous. Often, trying to remove these encapsulated pellets causes more harm to the animal,” explained Lourens.
They strapped the wing for a few days, and this, combined with cage rest, antibiotics and pain medication did the trick and the goshawk was soon on the mend again.
“Once his [the goshawk] fractured bones had healed, he spent some time in a flight enclosure awaiting his release. A Safring was placed and he was now free once again.”
After days of being freed, the goshawk was found on the side of a road after the hospital had tracked its slow movement using information from the Safring. Another thorough examination revealed that the goshawk had a slightly swollen right foot as well as an injury on his right hock, which was infected.
“Pain medication, anti-inflammatories, and antibiotics assisted in getting the infection under control, and then the injury needed to be debrided – medically removing damaged tissue under sedation.
“While we aren’t sure what happened to him, we are glad that he is on the mend, and we will release him when he has healed.”
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