Terrier terrified: an eagle-owl is denied dinner

Dog attacked by bird was saved by his winter overcoat

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By Martti Heikkinen
     
      In a peculiarly Finnish variant on the old "man bites dog" genre of filler-stories, the Jack Russell terrier Kaapo probably owes his life to the overcoat his owner Raija Hassinen equipped him with for the winter months.
      Without the coat, the chances are that Kaapo would have ended up as dinner for one of Finland's more majestic - and fearsome - birds, a Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo, see Factfile).
     
Things started to go seriously wrong for Kaapo when he was out around a month ago with Raija on the ice of Kallavesi, a large lake surrounding the city of Kuopio.
      The pair had gone out for a breath of air at around 7:30 in the evening. Kaapo was off the lead, scurrying backwards and forwards as Jack Russells do.
      Suddenly, he was being lifted into the air by a set of very large talons. The claws were attached to an eagle-owl, which had no qualms about hoisting a six-kilo dog off its feet.
      Raija was around fifty metres away at the time, and could do little. In any event, the dog managed to wriggle free just before take-off.
     
Raija said she had heard the beating of the bird's wings from behind her as it flew in on its approach run, but she had thought at first it was a skier or skater coming up from behind.
      "The big bird came in at around two or three metres off the deck and glided over me as if on display", she recalls.
      Her dog, seriously shaken, yelped and scampered into the reeds by the shore.
     
The eagle-owl, foiled in its first attempt, then went and sat at the top of a pine tree and considered its options.
      Raija Hassinen had not yet reached her dog by the time the bird decided to have another go at the terrier.
      This time the attacker grabbed Kaapo firmly from the back and lifted him into the air.
      However, after reaching an altitude of about a metre, the eagle-owl just as suddenly dropped the dog back onto the ice.
      Ornithologists regard the incident as extremely unusual, particularly since it happened so close to humans.
      One theory put forward is that the bird mistook the dog for a hare: there are plenty of them in the area and eagle-owls are quite partial to jugged hare.
     
Kaapo was physically unharmed, and the coat apparently meant not only that the bird could not get a decent grip on its intended prey, but also protected the animal from the sharp talons.
      However, the dog has suffered a form of post-traumatic stress disorder and is still afraid, four weeks later.
      He has refused to go out for walks, and has done his business indoors when the need arises.
      When he has ventured out, Kaapo has looked up at the pine trees on the shore of the lake with dread.
     
Veterinary surgeon Liisa Jalkanen from a clinic in Kuopio says that an adult dog will usually recover from such fears, though some animals need therapy and medication, just as humans do.
      With a puppy, some traumatic experience - and being yanked into the air by a large bird probably counts as pretty traumatic - can cause permanent scars on the psyche.
      The story of the drama on the ice was first noted in the regional newspaper Savon Sanomat.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 3.3.2009

More on this subject:
 FACTFILE: The eagle-owl nearly became extinct hereabouts in the 1870s

MARTTI HEIKKINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
martti.heikkinen@hs.fi