John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty
The return to campus at the University of Richmond has been particularly painful for some. An owl has been viciously attacking students and at least one professor, leaving scratches and missing chunks of flesh in its wake. “I thought I was getting mugged or something, but then I looked up and saw these orange or yellowish eyes,” sophomore Tyler Ferdinand told The Collegian, the student newspaper. “I had a big cut on the back of my head, and six minor cuts across my scalp. All of them scabbed over, but it hurt a lot.” Professor Leo Leopold told the paper that “it felt like a 10-pound pinecone hit me in the back of the head” when the owl silently swooped down. Biology professor Peter Smallwood suspects the creature—likely a barred owl—was raised in captivity and escaped and thinks people will feed it.