© Loraine IzzoA screech owl that lost a lot of body weight because of the harsh winter.
Two months of snow cover and brutal bouts of arctic air are endangering wildlife.
Wildlife rehabilitators say that animals — mainly waterfowl, owls, hawks and some mammals — are under serious stress. Many have starved because their food sources have been covered with snow and ice and the water they need to survive has been frozen.
"It's been a really hard, long, cold, desperate and brutal winter for wildlife," said Taffy Williams, a wildlife rehabilitator from Yonkers. "A lot of raptors, hawks and owls are being found dead."
Animals have been foraging in places they usually don't — risky places such as urban streets or sun-warmed banks along parkways.
Comment: The previous 'official' world record for most snow measured in 24 hours was 75.8 inches (193 cm) in Silver Lake, Colorado, over the night of April 14-15, 1921.
However, this article translated from Italian by iceagenow.info cites a 1961 meteorologist report that this was not the largest snow fall in the area: