Osprey Entangled In Twine

Teton Raptor Center is proud to be a part of the Wyoming Department of Transportation’s Adopt-a-Highway program! Each spring and fall, staff, board and volunteers join together to pick up litter along our adopted highway section, which spans the 2-mile section of Wyoming Highway 22 from the town of Wilson to the Snake River bridge.

We have collected pounds of debris from these efforts, ranging from all sorts of clothing, phone charging cables, construction debris, cigarette butts, twine, and more. It is also important for us to witness the types of debris found along roadsides, as certain kinds of trash contribute to raptor injuries. It is incredibly easy for raptors to be impacted from trash on our roadways, from twine left out causing entanglement injuries and deaths to the consumption of microplastics from eating roadkill and prey.

When we throw trash on our roadways we create an unintentional cycle, with the trash attracting prey items to the road to consume the food in that trash, leading to car strikes. This roadkill then attracts raptors to these roadways to consume the roadkill and they can become car strike victims themselves. Collisions are the number one cause of admission for raptors and corvids coming into our clinic. By cleaning up our roadways and preventing trash from being thrown out, we are doing essential conservation for these species.