The dangers of baling twinefrom FB Montana Osprey Cams
Hi all,
I have been really busy with various Osprey emergencies this last week. In the past we have talked about the problem of baling twine and Ospreys. Baling twine is polypropylene rope that is used to tie up bales of hay and straw. If people with horses and cows leave the baling twine around, Ospreys LOVE to pick it up and put it in their nests. The problem is that this twine never breaks down, and Osprey chicks and adults easily get tangled up and die. We estimate that about 5-10% of Ospreys in many areas die by entanglement. Last week I was able to rescue an adult female here in Missoula who was all tangled up (but her chicks died because she could not be a mombrella and cover them the way Iris did during the cold rains last week). Here is a story that ran in our newspaper The Missoulian:
Erick Greene
Hi all,
Here are a couple of pictures that illustrate the dangers of baling twine that is left around. The first shows how much baling twine I collected from ONE osprey nest. We measured all this baling twine, and there was more than 1/2 mile in this one nest! The second shows the baling twine that had tangled and killed the osprey chick yesterday.
Whenever we go up to Osprey nests, we are very careful to remove all the baling twine. We also give lots of educational programs about the dangers of baling twine. Fortunately, there is NO baling twine in Stanley and Iris' nest.
Erick Greene
photos
and the video