For months, viewers who tuned into a livestream of a famed Hilton Head nest watched as two baby owls flourished.
Great horned owls, dubbed HH5 and HH6, born in February and raised by parents Joshua and Bayley, were publicly monitored by the Hilton Head Island Land Trust’s Raptor CAM . Viewers caught glimpses of the owlets hatching from their shells, snacking on vermin, and growing from looking like cotton ball puffs to broad-chested birds with notable ear tufts. And, when the time came, the public watched them soar from the lofty nest.
Tuning in comes with a caveat, which the land trust has always made clear: “You will see nature at its best, and possibly its worst.” But its worst isn’t supposed to result from a human cause.
In May, a juvenile owl was found dead nearby the pine tree that holds the Raptor CAM. The death wasn’t caught on video, but the land trust said the female owl could be HH5 or HH6. Great horned owls are non-migratory and tend to stay in their territory, making it highly likely it was one of the two 5-month-old birds.
The dead owl didn’t have signs it’d been hit by a car or had been in a brawl, said Land Trust Board Member Robin Storey. Instead, with blood around its yellow eyes, Storey suspected the death was chemically induced. In late May, Storey drove the owl to the Avian Conservation Center medical clinic at the Center for Birds of Prey in Awendaw.
Samples sent to Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory revealed the owl had three different rat poisons in its system and, because of the levels of those poisons, the toxins “strongly suggest” the bird’s cause of death, the land trust said.
Two of the three ingested rodenticides — brodifacoum and bromodiolone — are second-generation anticoagulants, frequently used in residential, commercial and agricultural areas. The poisons are highly toxic, persist a long time in body tissues and one feeding is usually enough to kill, according to the Environmental Protection Agency . First-generation anticoagulants take multiple doses to have lethal effects.
In November 2022, the federal agency put up 11 rodenticides for registration review to gauge how best to protect human health and reduce ecological risks to non-target organisms. Brodifacoum and bromodiolone were included.
If sickened raptors are found early and toxin levels aren’t too high, the birds can be slowly rehabilitated.
As part of the delicate ecosystem, owls and other raptors’ diets include rodents, which helps the population from getting out of control. Natural, yes, but when humans step in with toxic methods, they can unintentionally devastate other species.
Jim Elliott, the Center for Birds of Prey director, estimated that in a year, rodenticides harmed between 50 and 60 great horned owls primarily living in the Carolinas and Georgia. The center committed to a multi-year, in-depth project on rodenticides’ effects in great horned owls, the land trust said.
What used to be sound of hoots, squawks and shrieks of two great horned owls that Storey heard each night has deafened to one. While it’s not 100% certain the dead owl was HH5 or HH6 or the remaining calls come from either, the death is a stark reminder that there are non-toxic rodent-control options.
“We need to have people ask their pest control, ‘What are you using?’” Storey said. “People don’t think that once that rat’s ingested, it’s going to be possibly eaten by a raccoon or a cat, or an owl or a hawk. It’s a whole ecosystem that it can impact.”
Alternative methods
- Tightly close trash bins
- Remove pet food, spilled birdseed and fallen fruit
- Seal cracks and crevices leading into a home
- Trim foliage and tree limbs at least 2 feet away from a home’s sides and roof
- Employ snap traps or electronic zappers to catch indoor rodents
- Never use glue or sticky traps
- Use non-toxic repellents
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