Warning: Gruesome photos after the jump
Wesleying would like to inform the community that on Sunday 10/21/12 at approximately 11 a.m. a Wes squirrel was scurrying atop a WILD Wes compost pile outside of WestCo 1 when a non-student red-tailed hawk swooped down and began violently pecking at it. The hawk did not attempt to engage the squirrel in conversation before grasping it with its razor sharp, two-inch talons. The squirrel was disembowled but declined medical attention and did not report the incident to the Middletown Police.
Ethan Hill ’16 who witnessed the altercation from his WestCo balcony said:
My roommate Willie Zabar ’16 saw the hawk tackle the squirrel on the compost pile and start pecking at it. Then [the hawk] grabbed it and flung it down on the ground and ripped its arm off.
The hawk flew off after dismembering the squirrel, before it returned to the scene at approximately 1:50 p.m. It resumed eating the squirrel, causing severe injuries to its intestines and severing its head. Several students who were returning from brunch and witnessed the confrontation took out their phones and took pictures. The hawk eventually fled the scene into a nearby tree.
Witnesses described the assailant as an adult female red-tailed hawk of indeterminate subspecies with a wingspan that was terrifyingly long.
Anyone with any information about this incident is asked to call Public Safety at 860-685-2345 or erect a convincing scarecrow. It is unknown at this time if this public safety incident is linked to last spring’s vulture attack on April 25.
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Thanks to Ethan Hill ’16, Sam Furnival ’15, and Bernard Furnival P ’15 for additional reporting.
