It wasn’t just pets that needed help during Hurricane Harvey. An injured hawk took refuge in a Houston taxi as Hurricane Harvey approached, apparently having been scared by a cat as well as the approaching storm. The hawk showed no fear of cab driver William Bruso (who thought the hawk was merely afraid and didn’t realize she was also injured) and wound up spending the hurricane in his house. (In fact, Bruso apparently let the hawk ride around on the dashboard while he continued to pick up fares and supplies before the hurricane arrived.)
Eventually Bruso turned the bird over to a wildlife rescue group, which treated the impact injuries and released the hawk back into the wild. All these clips are quite short, and I’ve trimmed them down to the ones I thought most interesting. You can find updates 1 and 4-7 on Mr Bruso’s YouTube channel. Or just click the first link below to go to the clip’s YouTube page and you should see links to the rest in the related-videos section (except possibly for the next-to-last one, which is from the rescue center’s channel).
(Incidentally, as the hawk recovered she began acting more hawk-like and a good deal less tame. This is one reason you should let experienced people handle wildlife rescue and not try to do too much on your own.)
Hawk in taxi:
Link: https://youtu.be/-6MjdV_8E6Q
Update #2: Discussing what to do.
Link: https://youtu.be/eZbq-5U2F6g
Update #3: Deciding to let the hawk ride out the storm at home.
Link: https://youtu.be/uW12caGP6JY
Update #8: Snack time.
Link: https://youtu.be/vMTfYoZdkRo
Update #9: Texas Wildlife Rescue takes custody.
Link: https://youtu.be/ZkpW_RoUlKo
Someone from Texas Wildlife Rescue talks about releasing the rehabilitated hawk back into the wild on their own channel.
Link: https://youtu.be/1P7qp_Zi_NA
Finally, here’s a more detailed news report from Harvey the Hawk’s release, with discussion of other animals needing help as a result of the hurricane and wildlife rescue in general. A little under seven minutes in William Bruso, who seems like a pretty decent guy, gives his own account of how Harvey came to get into his cab and the experience riding out the storm with her. He also talks about what happened to people in the Houston area and the devastation he saw doing volunteer work in the aftermath, and he even gets in a passing joke about Uber. He then helps release Harvey back into the wild.
Link: https://youtu.be/OjznmUuYPfo
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