Take these broken wings and learn to fly again...

[samhexum]

Sometimes a friendly prank between two football rivals can go too far.

 

That seemed to be the case recently when one of the Air Force Academy’s real-life falcon mascots was seriously hurt during a prank before the annual rivalry football game against Army, in upstate New York, according to an Air Force Academy official.

 

The falcon, a 22-year-old bird named Aurora, suffered unspecified injuries to both wings after being “stolen” by Army cadets, the Gazette of Colorado Springs, Colo., reported. The injuries were described as “life-threatening.”

 

Aurora was being flown back to Colorado to see a specialist at the Air Force Academy, according to Troy Garnhart, associate athletic director for strategic communications at the school.

 

“We have specialists at the academy who have the best training and facilities for her care. She is part of our academy family and we are all hoping for her full and speedy recovery,” another Air Force official, academy spokesman Lt. Col. Tracy Bunko told the Gazette.

 

But given Aurora’s advanced age, the bird may have to be euthanized, an Air Force official who requested anonymity told the newspaper. Falcons in captivity tend to live about 25 years, according to the Teton Raptor Center in Wilson, Wyo.

 

According to the Gazette, the Army cadets had taken Aurora from an Army colonel’s house as part of a prank during the week leading up to Saturday’s game at Michie Stadium in West Point.

 

Adding insult to the mascot’s injury, Army’s football team defeated Air Force, 17-14.

 

 

Ghouls and goblins painted the town last week, but bats were few and far between this Halloween — because a skin-eating fungus has wiped out 90 percent of them in New York state.

 

The state Department of Environmental Conservation revealed the stunning number of dead bats during National Bat Week, and warned people exploring caves and other possible hibernation sites “that even a single, seemingly quiet visit” can kill infected bats.

 

The Little Brown Bat that’s common in New York City is among the species that have been decimated by the disease, according to Fordham University Biological Sciences professor, J. Alan Clark, who has researched the city’s bat population using acoustic monitoring.

 

“The Little Brown Bat was at one time thought to be the most common bat,” he said. “But it took us four or five years to record one.”

 

White-nose syndrome — first discovered in Schoharie County in 2006 — is a highly contagious fungus that appears as a white fuzz around the bats’ noses and mouths, and carves tiny holes in their skin, Clark explained.

 

New York is home to nine bat species, and six live in New York City, according to Clark. Three have been known to hibernate here: the Hoary, Eastern Red and Silver-Haired Bats.

 

“Tree crevices, attics, little holes in bark, those are places they might be,” Clark said.

 

Clark said the worst of the white-nose plague could be over, as about 5 percent of bats “seem to have some natural resistance and are breeding.”

 

And while bats typically get a bad rap as blood-sucking, rabies-carrying menaces, Clark said the resurgence of the world’s only flying

mammal will help keep pests under control.

 

“The Little Brown Bat can eat 3,000 insects per night, and one colony can eat 250,000 mosquitoes in a night,” he said. “They have been both revered and reviled throughout history but they are such an important part of our ecosystem.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WplTSTAUEU4