A Russian man has died after being attacked by an owl he tried to steal from Moscow zoo, the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reported.

The incident took place on Tuesday night. Zoo workers found the body of the 32-year old man near the wild birds’ cage. An owl was missing from the nearest compertment.

Most likely, the man got into the zoo at night intending to steal a bird. He climbed over the fense and broke the cage where an owl lived. “The place was covered with feathers, at first we thought that the owl flew away,” zoo workers told reporters. However, soon the bird was discovered hiding in the bushes. The owl was bruised and frightened, but alive.

Prosecutors, who started investigation into the man’s death, said it was obvious that the bird fought the thief fiercely. The cage and the zoo fence were covered in blood drops. Investigators say that the man tried to climb the fence wit the bird in his hands but fell and collapsed after his head hit a cage. The man died of hypothermia after lying several hours unconscious on the cold ground.

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