Florida Owl Survives Being Hit and Gets Stuck in Grill of SUV!

Great Horned Owl Survives Hit by SUV on Florida Turnpike Gets Stuck Behind the Grill.

An Owl was all over the news yesterday and the story started in central Florida near Yeehaw Junction when a lady heading south on the Florida Turnpike at night struck a large bird. It was dark and remote and she kept on going assuming the bird was killed, she felt bad about that. The next day when she was running errands people told her there were eyes looking out of the grill on her large SUV. This story has a happy ending as Florida Fish and Wildlife officers removed the owl from behind the grill and it was relatively unharmed. The driver of the SUV showed tremendous empathy for the owl and was brought to tears by the rescue. An amazing story that is told in the video from CNN below.

CNN News Story on Owl Eyes in a Truck Grill

A similar incident happened in Vermont last December

Painful to look at, but miraculously the owl survived 

Source: sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net

Interestingly, this story on BuzzFeed tells the even more amazing tale of a Barred Owl that survived literally breaking through and getting stuck in the grill of a truck in Vermont. Clearly most owls struck by vehicles are either killed or seriously injured, indeed a lot of owls brought to shelters have been hit by vehicles. In these rare cases of miraculous survival I wonder if the large volume of feathers to body size helps act as a cushion to the impact. Screech Owls in particular  have tiny little bodies under all their feathers - more likely it was just their lucky day!