Owl saved from electrical fence adopts abandoned owlet
Popular Science...
When animals end up in a wildlife center, it’s usually not for happy reasons. But sometimes tough situations have a silver lining, and that’s exactly what’s happened at Raven Ridge Wildlife Center in Washington Boro, Pennsylvania.
The rescue center received a call from a game warden about a female great horned owl (Bubo virginianus) that had gotten stuck in an electrical fence. The game warden had successfully removed her from the fence, but the owl was struggling, unable to stand or fly. Thinking the owl may have broken a wing, he took her to the Raven Ridge Wildlife Center.
Thankfully, neither of the owl’s wings broke, though one of them appeared swollen. While examining the patient, licensed wildlife rehabilitator Tracie Young noticed that the great horned owl had a brood patch—essentially a bare patch of skin that develops to provide a direct heat source for eggs.
That meant she was a mama owl. Unfortunately, with the time that had passed and the distance she may have flown made tracking down her nest impossible. But the owl wouldn’t be an empty nester for long. The wildlife center then received a baby great horned owl that had been found in an external stairway leading to a basement.
The pairing seemed like a potential match made in heaven—a motherless owlet and a baby-less mother great horned owl. Young decided to try pairing the two up. If it worked, the owlet could learn from the adult and not imprint on people, she explained to Popular Science. But some risk remained. The Raven Ridge staff had previously paired great horned owl babies with their foster great horned owl male, Pharaoh.
“That’s why we say we want to take a chance. We don’t know for sure,” Young said. For example, the older owl might try to kill the owlet. Thankfully, “we’ve never had any issues. He [Pharaoh] has raised all of our babies for us.” But now they had a great horned owl female “that’s already doing the job,” and so they took a chance on her.
The team put the owlet in her cage. The next morning, they found the owlet sitting directly next to her. It worked. “She knew this was her baby now.”
Little did the mother know that she would soon successfully adopt a second owlet brought to the wildlife center. The plan is to eventually release the family in the area where the mother was discovered. At this point, the owlets will have grown, but they can still call her for help.
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