Cuddly Christmas Owl (1 Viewer)

At this time of year Organisations and Charities pull at the heart strings for donations, some are worthy some perhaps not.
But with the Barn Owl still in decline in certain areas perhaps a thought for the years of hard work carried out by the Barn Owl Trust.
They are giving the opportunity to help support their important work
" CUDDLY OWLETS " at £5 + £1 p&p

www.barnowltrust.org.uk or call them 01364 653026.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL

Santas` little helper.

I`ve been to a bird rescue place and a bird they have in profusion are barn owls, they say this is because the babe learns how to hunt from the Mother, if the mother dies or is killed they are in serious trouble....how do they differ from other owls in their evolution (a strong word I know but I could think of no other!!), this seems to be a real mishap regarding survival....why did it happen? Does anyone know?

oceans said:

I`ve been to a bird rescue place and a bird they have in profusion are barn owls, they say this is because the babe learns how to hunt from the Mother, if the mother dies or is killed they are in serious trouble....how do they differ from other owls in their evolution (a strong word I know but I could think of no other!!), this seems to be a real mishap regarding survival....why did it happen? Does anyone know?

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Hi Oceans,
The main reason many so called Sanctuaries have a vast number of Barn Owls is that many are unwanted captive bred Barn Owls that are human reliant.
Many others are simply because these sanctuaries keep many wild disabled birds, sadly many are very badly disabled and have no quality of life. There was in part a reason for keeping a number of wild disabled birds for breed and release schemes but the Government in their complete ignorance banned all breed and release schemes in 2002.
Under Schedule 9 of the Wildlife and Countryside act it is illegal for anyone to release a Barn Owl into the wild, this does not just mean captive birds but also covers wild injured that have been rehabilitated.
Any Barn Owl that is to be released has to be done so under Licence.
Statistic show that there are over 100,000 barn Owls in captivity and sadly many idiots are still breeding them even though there is no demand.
When the heart rules the head like in so many Sanctuaries serious problems always arise.

Suricate

Hmmmmm...I didnt know this.
There was so many of them....all young and differing sizes, there was one pair of eyes looking right at us....apparently this one was a new rescue, the guy said they try not to imprint the birds in any way, the rest didnt look at us at all.
What a shame.

oceans said:

Hmmmmm...I didnt know this.
There was so many of them....all young and differing sizes, there was one pair of eyes looking right at us....apparently this one was a new rescue, the guy said they try not to imprint the birds in any way, the rest didnt look at us at all.
What a shame.

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Sadly this does sound rather a poor run Centre that gives the work of true wildlife rehabilitators a bad name. There are four types of imprinting with regard to birds. If the birds are being parent reared then there are in reality no chances of imprinting if the carers leave them alone. The worst type of imprinting is that to which happens to many birds used for falconry when they are taken as a chick and fully imprinted by human contact. These birds eventually, especially Owls become very aggressive towards people when they reach maturity. This is the reason so many of the larger Owls flown in arenas as display birds are retired early and sometimes destroyed.

Suricate