A great horned owl protecting its territory left a handful of skiers in the Kamloops area with a memorable story about a night out on the trails.
At about 8 p.m. on Jan. 11, Joel Wood was cross-country skiing around Stake Lake, about 30 kilometres south of Kamloops, when a great horned owl flew into his poles.
He had deliberately chosen the route to avoid trails an Overlander Ski Club employee warned him to steer clear of that evening due to an aggressive owl, but the bird found him anyway.
Then, about 100 metres farther into his trek, the owl struck.
“It hit me in the head with its talons,” Wood told KTW. “It really startled me, but actually, it was kind of cool. It’s not usually what happens on a cross-country ski.”
Wood, an associate professor at Thompson Rivers University, nevertheless continued along the trail, hoping to get in some cardio exercise that night. Upon arriving at his car, Wood noticed the skin on his ear was cut as a result of the owl attack and the manager at Overlander Ski Club suggested he get a tetanus shot.
“The nurses [at Royal Inland Hospital] told me there were three other people there who had been attacked by the same owl,” Wood said. “The people in the waiting room were all laughing about it, too.”
The Overlander Ski Club, which operates the ski trails at Stake Lake, told the Vancouver Sun the owl had “swooped and scratched” five different people in the trail network in different places on Jan. 10. Injuries were reported as being minor.
Interior Health North spokesperson Michaela Swan told KTW most animal bites can cause minor injuries, noting home treatment is usually all that is needed to care for the wound. She added that people can call 8-1-1 to inquire as to whether a tetanus shot may be needed.
Wood will avoid the trails identified as problematic by the club, but plans to continue utilizing Stake Lake in the future. Trails impacted are Little Joe, Ponderosa, Hoss and Sk'elép.
“I probably won’t take the trails where people got attacked by the owl, but there’s other trails there where, hopefully, the owl will leave me alone,” he said. “It’s definitely not going to affect me skiing up there, but maybe it will affect which trails I go on.”
In a Facebook post, the Overlander Ski Club said conservation officers “think that the owl is probably building or going to start building a nest for the spring, so it’s best just leave it alone until it decides to move on to somewhere else.”
Overlander staff said they have consulted biologists and other experts, with the best advice for now being to stay away and, likely, the owl will move on.”
The club said it is best to avoid the impacted trails at night for the next week and ski with other people instead of alone. The club said the owl was spotted a couple of times the night after the attacks, but there were no encounters with skiers.
“Owls are, of course, nocturnal, and much less likely to be active during the daylight hours, but still be aware,” the club said in a Facebook post.
Staff said they will speak to conservation officers and put together a plan for what to do about the owl and urged anyone who does get scratched to get a tetanus shot.
—with files from the Vancouver Sun