Snowy owl rescued from car grille near Duluth dies

The snowy owl that was rescued from a car grille near Duluth earlier this week has died.

The Wildwoods rehabilitation center announced the owl’s death on social media Thursday. The critter was found by a Lake Superior Zoo employee Monday and transported to Wildwoods, along with a great gray owl she had found earlier that day.

Wildwoods officials then transported the birds to the University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center in St. Paul.

Center officials on Thursday said the snowy owl arrived on Christmas Eve and had suffered extensive injuries that included trauma to its internal organs, a broken wing and broken leg that couldn’t be repaired.

“The kindest treatment we could offer this bird was a peaceful passing via euthanasia, as it would never return to flight,” Raptor Center Medical Director Dana Franzen-Klein told the Minnesota Star Tribune in a statement.

The gray owl is faring better, Raptor Center officials say. That bird suffered a broken wing bone and injuries to the soft tissue in the same wing.

A second gray owl the Raptor Center received on Christmas Day has been hospitalized with several broken bones in its shoulder.

“Whenever a bird has a chance at recovery we provide all the treatment within our power to give them that chance,” Franzen-Klein said.

Wildwoods typically receives 30 owls per year. So far this week, the rehabilitation center has taken in four.

The Raptor Center also receives snowy owls every year as the birds migrate south from the Arctic, though the number varies.

“If it was a successful breeding year the summer prior and there were many baby snowy owls that made it to fledging age, that often results in more birds migrating south for the winter and more admissions to our center,” Franzen-Klein said.