Northern goshawk attacks biker on popular Whitehorse trail | 24CA News

It’s frequent for Yukon mountain bikers to hold bear-spray, however what bikers aren’t anticipating is to be attacked from the air, by a chook.

“It was a solid hit,” mentioned Thane Phillips.

The Whitehorse mountain biker was ripping down a path known as Mother-Tucker — a single observe route that kinds a part of the favored Grey Mountain path community — when he was attacked by a northern goshawk.

“Yeah [it] put three or four puncture holes in the back of my helmet, he would have peeled me open with a can opener basically if I didn’t have my helmet on,” mentioned Phillips.

After listening to a piercing chook cry, Phillips mentioned the goshawk adopted him overhead. 

“It was like hovering above me, following me as I was tearing down this trail then all of a sudden it just disappeared from sight and I just felt this big smack in the back of my head.”

Phillips and his biking companion managed to flee the chook however his broken helmet reveals simply how highly effective an assault it was.

“That’s the goshawk, scraping the top of that helmet with both its very sharp talons and probably even throwing a bit of beak in there too,” mentioned Cameron Eckert taking a look at a photograph of the helmet.

Eckert is president of the Yukon Bird Club and mentioned the biker was fortunate, the assault may have had a a lot worse final result.

“So fortunately that biker was wearing a helmet cause that would have been right on his head otherwise.”

Eckert notes the northern goshawk is a chook of prey, comparable in dimension to a big gull. However, not like different predatory birds, the goshawk is not shy about lashing out if its nest is underneath menace.

“I’m not surprised to hear about this,” mentioned Fiona Schmiegelow, a biologist and professor at Yukon University. “Northern goshawks are an aggressive territorial species.”

Schmiegelow is conscious a pair of goshawks have been nesting on this space for a number of years, including that usually a chook like this would not be attacking people until they felt threatened.

“At this time of year when they’ve got young in the area, if we can stay away as much as possible that would be really helpful for them as they’re living on the margins as it is.”

There was a time when the northern goshawks, had been underneath menace, however they’ve bounced again during the last a number of a long time. Still, Schmiegelow mentioned the much less stress the birds are underneath, the higher.

“Like many species they are feeling the threat of habitat loss in other areas of their range and also climate change and so they need to be spending a lot of their time hunting and finding food, just to keep alive.”

Phillips has shared a photograph of his broken helmet on a neighborhood mountain biking discussion board, warning others to remain away for now.

Both Schmiegelow and Eckert agree giving the birds a number of weeks of peace is a good suggestion.