From Star Mail
Fresh calls to take greater care on Victorian roads with a Greater Sooty Owl recently needing life-saving treatment at Healesville Sanctuary’s wildlife hospital.
The threatened species with soulful eyes and sharp talons suffered a head trauma, suspected of being hit by a car at Gembrook south-east of Melbourne.
A wildlife carer rushed the large nocturnal bird to the Sanctuary’s Australian Wildlife Health Centre (AWHC) where it received a full medical check including X-Rays, eye examination and blood tests upon arrival.
Healesville Sanctuary veterinary nurse Chris Stitt said they needed to rule out rodenticide poisoning which was the main reason for the blood test.
“We found the owl was straining one of its eyes due to corneal damage. But thankfully, we didn’t find any fractures,” Mr Stitt said.
“It is not a species we see often, so it was quite an exciting moment to be up close to such an amazing bird that’s considered endangered in Victoria. In my seven years working at the wildlife hospital, I haven’t come across one before.”
The greater sooty owl was provided a quiet, dark place to recover in the new Raptor Rehabilitation Centre while it received fluids, anti-inflammatory medication and pain relief.
Seven days later, wildlife carers released this beautiful species back to the wild where it was found at dusk.
Greater sooty owls are a medium to large owl species that stand about 40-50 centimetres tall.
They are listed as endangered under the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 and listed as least concern with a decreasing population on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Threats to their survival include habitat loss and fragmentation, rodenticide poisoning and road trauma.
Chris admits seeing this wildlife patient serves as a good reminder to take extra care when driving at dawn and dusk because that’s when so many of our native species come out and explore.
I initially wondered if it was related to short attention spans, but then I thought perhaps it's just so paragraphs aren't such big blocks of text on phones. Even the non-mobile site only has 2/3 the width dedicated to the articles and the rest is thick white spaces and ads/links to other articles.
Wasn't sure if this is some modern design language that's being taught or something else.
I like to think I read above a sixth-grade level but I admit in scrolling-type situations, I kind of like one-sentence-per-paragraph.
At the least it obviates the need for a topic sentence, dunnit?
That is, at least until AI is redirected to create once-sentence-per-paragraph outputs, and then I will not like it, Sam I Am.
I almost feel like this article for example could be like 3 paragraphs, but it was broken up and rearranged to make it look longer. To me it looks like it jumps around the way it's written, but it could just be my speech structure vs this author's.
My brain sees:
Here's a story about an owl.
This guy helped the owl and he works at this place.
Here's a fact about the owl.
Hold that though, the guy is talking to me again.
These owls aren't common here.
Back to you, Chris.
And here's some more about his workplace again. Ok, I'm out.
I'd say: This owl got hit. This is what caused it. This is how it got fixed. Here's some cool stuff about the owl since you probably never saw one and most people don't spend every day thinking about strange owls like I do.
To me, my way is telling a story, and the author's feels like they're googling owl facts while talking to the guy and then they just clean up his notepad and print that without composing it all together.
Again, this is more this phenomenon I keep seeing in multiple sources. I'm certainly not hating on the author. I assume the editors make them do it this way.
No that makes perfect sense. Probably broke it up to fill space?
It certainly achieves that goal. 😁
For sure this jumping all over the place style is due to shortened attention spans, either the audience’s or the author’s. It is pretty annoying when everything is formatted for reading on phones. Some of us use iPads! Or -gasp- actual laptops and desktops!
Good to see that the Sooty was ok. They are like edgy Barn Owls. 🖤
It does seem to complicate things with how many device sizes we can have.
I'd probably deal with it better if it was ordered more logically and was just broken down for legibility.
I was thrilled to get some Sooty content. They are so cool looking! I'd love to meet one sometime. 🥰