JERSEY CITY — A Port Authority police officer helped rescue a hawk in distress on train tracks early Friday morning.

The hawk was on the tracks near Exchange Place in Jersey City around 2 a.m when a track inspector spotted it, according to Port Authority police. Members of PATH track maintenance captured the bird and handed it off to Officer Jordan Gonzalez, who brought it to an animal control officer at the Journal Square station.

Track inspector Giuseppe Rosato told the Hudson Daily Voice that his co-worker Kevin Ronan threw a jacket over the hawk after they turned off the power to capture the hawk.

Popcorn Park Zoo executive director John Bergmann told New Jersey 101.5 the hawk may have followed a rat or a rabbit into the tunnel, but because hawks don't fly in the dark, it became "trapped."

It's not the first time an animal has become trapped on the crossings between New York and New Jersey. A cat in November 2019 was rescued from the scaffolding between the upper and lower levels of the George Washington Bridge. A kitten was rescued from a Lincoln Tunnel catwalk in August 2019.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ

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