Trapped by old barbed wire, young owlet freed on Melville Koppies
Melville Koppies volunteers urge residents to remove redundant wires and potential threats to wildlife.
The Friends of Melville Koppies volunteer Wendy Carstens was involved in assisting with the rescue of a Spotted Eagle owlet, an experience she says was memorable.
“It was sitting on a stone wall between an electrified palisade fence and rusty barbed wire, on a boundary of a Kafue Road house that backs onto Melville Koppies East.”
The parents she says were close by hooting frantically as their baby was trapped.
“A dog walker had seen the bird and put it on his WhatsApp group. I got the call when I was close by chatting to Ricardo Magni who promptly fetched strong wire cutters and cut the owlet free.”
Several Melville and Emmarentia houses are backing onto Melville Koppies East that have redundant rusty barbed wire dangling from boundary walls and fences into the Koppies. “These rusty eyesores pose a danger to pedestrians, dogs, and now birds.”
Carstens urges residents to check their boundaries to see if they need tidying up by removing potentially dangerous wires or other items that could pose a threat to local wildlife.
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