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Digit Entrapment Due to Plastic Waste in a Verreaux’s Eagle Owl (Bubo lacteus)
Summary
This case report describes the treatment of a Verreaux's eagle owl whose digit became entrapped in plastic waste debris, illustrating the direct physical harm macroplastics can cause to terrestrial wildlife. It highlights the underreported threat that plastic pollution poses to land animals beyond the well-documented marine impacts.
Plastic waste has become a hot topic in sustainability and conservation, helped in part by popular documentaries which have highlighted the issue to the general public. Much of the current literature focuses on the effect of microplastics in the marine environment, with very little information on macroplastic interactions or the terrestrial environment. In this report, the management of digit constriction due to macroplastic debris in a Verreaux’s eagle owl (Bubo lacteus) is presented, and the role of zoos in decreasing littering behaviour both within the collection and in the wider global context is discussed.