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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richard Klim" data-source="post: 1750798" data-attributes="member: 773">The arguments in support of the feasibility of colonisation by genuine wild Eagle Owls from the continent usually focus solely upon the physical possibility of a vagrant successfully making the over-water crossing to Britain.  It's clear that such a possibility cannot be ruled out.  But given that an individual does arrive in Britain, the probability that it encounters a second wild vagrant of the opposite sex within its potential breeding lifetime must surely be extremely low – perhaps an order of magnitude less than the (already very low) probability of mating with an escaped/released individual of potentially indeterminate race.There are more than 30 globally threatened owl species, and I acknowledge the value of  the conservation work performed by the World Owl Trust to help some of them.  But given the Trust's global mission, and having read its report, I still fail to understand the rationale for devoting so much energy to campaigning for the establishment and protection of a British population of a species of Least Concern, derived from the interbreeding of individuals of unknown provenance – even if it can be proven that there are no significant negative impacts on other species.  Surely there are many more worthwhile causes.Richard</blockquote>