Police Rescue Falcon On Suðurlandsvegur

The police were called to Suðurlandsvegur yesterday when a pedestrian found a falcon that appeared to be ill or wounded, Vísir reported this morning. The information was revealed on the Suðurland police’s Facebook page.

“The projects of the police are different and not always about people,” the post read. “Police also come to help animals in various situations, when they are lost, found, or sometimes injured. It is not often that falcons come to the attention of the police, but it happened today.”

The police then called a specialist from the Institute of Natural History, and the falcon was taken for further examination. It has not yet been announced what exactly was wrong with this particular falcon.

The Institute’s website gives further information on falcons. The Icelandic falcon is fully protected. It is forbidden to disturb nesting falcons in any way–even for photographs–without the permission of the Environment Agency.

However, shooting and egg theft is still a threat to falcons despite this: a quarter of the dead falcons received by the Institute appear to have died by being shot. Other long-term threats include the accumulation of pollutants in the birds’ bodies and the decline of the ptarmigan population, ptarmigan being a type of northern grouse on which falcons feed.

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