The Struggle is Real

One of the components of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is that there is a struggle for survival. Darwin noted that part of this struggle for survival is for species to give birth and raise offspring that will join the next generation, and that there are often more offspring born than can possibly survive.

I was reminded of this tenet of natural selection during the Memorial Day weekend this year when I visited a family of Red-shouldered Hawks that had nested on a local college campus in central Ohio. I had been periodically observing the progress of their nest since March. They had built their nest in a Sweet Gum tree in front of a dormitory, and on the corner of a relatively busy intersection on campus. They had endured all sorts of extreme weather including rain, snow, and heat. They had endured sporting event traffic, final exam traffic, summer move-out traffic, and even a major construction project right across the street, which had involved removal of trees, and demolition. Through it all, they had tended to the nest, protected the chicks, and brought in food like frogs, rodents, and small birds to feed their chicks.

But that Sunday, as I drove up the street to check on them, I found the nest was gone; knocked out of the big sweet gum tree. The nest was on the ground and completely destroyed. Unfortunately, this happened before the chicks were able to completely fly. I searched through the nest debris, in the hope that maybe a chick had survived and could be rescued. I didn’t find the chicks in the debris, and initially thought they may have been taken by a predator like a coyote, raccoon, or even a stray dog. Dejected, I returned to my car and decided to leave.

As I was pulling away, I happened to look over at one of the academic buildings and saw a hawk sitting on the ground next to it. I stopped and realized this was one of the chicks. Fortunately, the chicks survived the fall and I was able to find them on the ground and in some bushes not far from the nest tree. It turned out there had been three chicks and when I inspected the nest, I learned the parents had actually laid 4 eggs, but one hadn't hatched. The eggshell and yolk were found with the nest debris below the tree.

On Sunday evening I contacted a local wildlife rescue organization, and they placed the chicks in a small tree near the original nest tree. One of the parents was still hanging around, so it was hoped the chicks would continue to be cared for as they learned to fly.

On Monday morning, the wildlife rescue folks returned and placed the chicks in a slightly taller tree for safety and protection and to encourage the parents to come to the chicks. All three chicks were still in the tree as of 2:30 p.m. that afternoon. By 6:30 p.m. a friend & colleague contacted me to tell me that she had found one of the chicks on the ground and it seemed injured. The wildlife rescuers came back out and took the injured chick to the hospital for evaluation. It was preliminarily diagnosed as a shoulder injury.

Vets x-rayed the injured shoulder and found that it was completely shattered and would not be able to heal. Unfortunately, this meant that the chick had to be euthanized.

On Tuesday, several friends notified me that one of the two remaining chicks was missing. I assumed an owl or Red-tailed Hawk may have gotten it. So, now we were down to one chick left of the three.

Wednesday night of that week we had a thunderstorm, so on Thursday I made the trip to campus to see how the, presumably, last chick was doing. Sadly, I found it dead under the tree. I guessed it may have also been injured in the original fall from the tree and the heat of Wednesday (~90 deg. F) may have done it in.

Fortunately, I was able to re-find the chick that had gone missing on Tuesday, earlier in the week. It had somehow made its way to a tall maple on the other side of the academic building. It was exercising its wings and the parents were being very attentive. I'm really hoping this one makes it, and the last I heard from a colleague on campus, it was doing well and was still hanging around on campus with its parents.

While this seems like a tragic story, it is a good example of the struggle for existence that Darwin wrote about. The Red-shouldered Hawk parents may have laid four eggs initially, but three hatched. Two of the three didn’t survive the fall from the nest, but the last chick was receiving the full attention and protection of its parents to hopefully insure that it would join and contribute to the next generation of Red-shouldered Hawks in central Ohio.