One North Shore Hawk's Survival Story Amid A Distressing Trend

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Dan Proulx called this hawk Maximus.

There's part of the Swampscott Animal Control officer that knows it's not always a great idea to name the animals he finds injured or suffering from illness. Most often — especially when it comes to birds that prey on rodents on the North Shore — that name creates an attachment that makes it harder when the animal he hopes to save almost inevitably succumbs to the dire circumstances in which he found it.

But this hawk was different. This hawk was a rare success story of one found struggling with a broken immune system and the inability to clot blood from eating too many rats and mice poisoned with rodentcide.

This was Proulx's "Gladiator."

"It reset me," Proulx told Patch of the hawk's recovery. "It uplifted me. I wanted to get the word out on what's happening to these hawks and owls."

Maximus survived through the tireless help of Cape Ann Wildlife of Gloucester — one of only 10 organizations in the state federally licensed to keep and nurse birds such as eagles, hawks and owls. Cape Ann treasurer Erin Hutchings told Patch that 95 percent of birds found suffering from the poisoning do not make it.

But on the one-in-20 chance they will, Proulx rescued Maximus — in his capacity as a permitted Mass. Wildlife trapper while off duty — in Peabody this spring. He was released back into the wild on April 18.

"Since the majority of secondary rodenticide hawks or owls I get are literally end-stage poisoning I have seen a lot of death," Hutchings said. "They usually end up bleeding out before I can save them or some are too far gone so it's kindest to humanely euthanize them.

"So, you can understand the thrill after months of treatment to see the hawks make it to freedom. I still tear up watching the videos and looking at the pictures of their second chance on living free."

Rodentcide is commonly used by restaurants and other commercial businesses to control the rat population. The rodents ingest the poison, which makes them sluggish and easier prey for the eagles, hawks and owls.

Once those raptors find a spot with easy prey, they keep going back there for food. The more infected rodents they eat, the more the poison affects the birds until they become feeble and ACOs like Proulx finds them in extreme distress.

"It's been so disappointing the number of times I've picked up a red tail hawk or an owl and it dies from thinning blood," Proulx said. "It's usually not the first (rodent) they eat. It's from multiple ones. It catches up with them."

The cost of even trying to rehabilitate a hawk or owl is very high and labor-intensive as they need Vitamin K and fluid treatments every few hours and two rodents a day for food if they start to regain their health. Proulx said he had to purchase a soft cage to transport the ones he finds because if the birds struggle when they are in the cage and bruise themselves the inability to clot can cause them to die from internal bleeding.

The poisoning not only affects birds but also coyotes, foxes, raccoons, skunks and even cats that find the infected rodents and eat them.

"They usually become immunocompromised so it's not just treating the mange and secondary skin infections," Hutchings said. "You have to look deeper and the culprit is usually rodenticide."

Hutchings said a recent study showed that 98 percent of birds of prey tested had some level of rodenticide in their system.

Proulx allows there is no easy solution to the troubling situation, which he said is worst around malls and other North Shore places with large dumpsters of food. While both Cape Ann Wildlife and Proulx said they would like places to stop using rodenticide altogether, one mitigation effort would be to keep the dumpster area secure, clean and free of garbage as much as possible to prevent attracting rats and mice in the first place.

He also suggested a reintroduction program for more hawks and owls on the North Shore.

"I would love to see surrounding towns in certain areas place hawks," he said. "It may seem far-fetched to some but nature intended for them to control the rodent population."

(Cape Ann Wildlife accepts donations to help with the cost of hawk and owl rehabilitation. Those wishing to make a donation can do so at Cape Ann Wildlife, P.O. Box 405, Essex, MA 01929.)

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)