Patient of the Week: Great Egret Tangles With Octopus

This is the story of a Great Egret, an octopus, and a Good Samaritan.

Earlier this week, we received a new patient—a Great Egret who had suffered significant trauma to his left leg. We have, of course, seen a lot of birds with injured legs before; but what was different about this patient was how he’d sustained his injuries.

It seems the bird had an “altercation” with an octopus in view of a man who was fishing along the shore in San Pedro, California. When the fisherman realized that the bird and the octopus were entangled in a deadly struggle, he came to the rescue to separate the combatants. Despite the aggravated octopus turning his ire to the egret’s rescuer, the fisherman was ultimately able to bring the injured egret to us at our Los Angeles center.

Fortunately, the egret is now recovering. Octopuses have a toxin in their bite, and this bird has lacerations to its thigh, hock and foot joints where this could be a factor. Initial inflammation at the wounds is decreasing and the bird is standing and eating, but is having some trouble positioning his foot without a supportive wrap. Currently we aren’t certain if this is due to the lacerations or due to neurotoxin in the octopus’ bite.

We’ll never know which animal instigated the conflict, but we have hopes this egret will make it to release and have another go at having octopus for lunch!