Barry the Owl - a Central Park favourite died with lethal levels of SGARs

Barry was a much loved resident of Central Park, New York. He died after being hit by a truck but was found to have high levels of rodenticides which are known to cause confusion and impair the ability of animals to avoid being hit by vehicles. As apex predators owls will consume 1000s of rats etc a year and because of SGARs long half life they will build up in their system and either kill them directly or contribute to their death in other ways as was likely the case for Barry. Closer to home a study of dead Powerful Owls around Melbourne detected rodenticides in 83.3% of the birds.