A hawk has gone viral after becoming too big to fly, with vets also blaming the fact that it likes to sleep all the time.
Over the years, there have been a few unusually large animals that have caught the attention of the internet. In more recent years, the most viral of these have been bears, especially as some have started living under people’s houses and stealing beer from their fridges.
However, over in Roanoke, Virginia, another unusually large animal has gone viral – a Red-shouldered Hawk. As per the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center of Roanoke, the bird was at the centre of a mystery at the wildlife hospital due to a number of injuries.
“The diagnosis: At over 910g in weight, she was too darn fat to fly! We couldn’t even palpate her keel due to the heavy layer of fat covering it,” they posted to Facebook. “It is RARE for wild animals to become obese without human intervention, so how could this happen?”
Hawk diagnosed as being too “fat” to fly
The wildlife hospital noted that the hawk had been feasting on chickens from a neighbor “at an alarming rate” over the last few weeks.
“This queen was picking off the buffet of easy prey set out before her, eating her fill, and then snoozing in the trees nearby until she was ready to eat again. The chickens were let out in the morning, she ate another, and repeat. After weeks of repeating this feasting and sleeping, it’s no wonder she got too fat to fly!” they added.
They concluded that the hawk was, in fact, “extremely vulnerable” instead of being its usual predator self due to the excess weight.
Plenty of Facebook users have seen the funny side to the story, though. “The diagnosis: Fat has sent me,” one said. “She said it’s her winter feathers; how dare you,” another added. “Morbidly obese hawk! Who knew?” another said.
Back in 2024, the “world’s fattest cat,” who went viral for trying to escape fat camp, actually passed away. He had gotten stuck in a shoe rack due to the excessive weight.
I’m Abhishek Sharma, an author at TigerJek.com. I enjoy exploring games, testing different strategies, and turning what I learn into clear, useful guides. My goal is to help players understand the game better and improve without the usual confusion.
