In early spring of this year, an orphaned male great horned owl was brought to Ravensbeard from the Woodstock Animal Sanctuary. The young (approximately 5-6 weeks old), fuzzy fledgling had been following the groundskeeper for days begging for food. The man was amused by the owlet and gave it something to eat. From that day on, the owlet thought he found a new mother. The keeper was afraid the baby owl would become totally dependent on him if he kept feeding it. The owlet was doing what baby owls do – cry and beg for food. After a few days of this, the keeper called us asking for advice. We told him to bring the little owl to Ravensbeard for a health evaluation to make sure he was healthy with no prior injuries. The owl was in fact perfect in every way, not showing any signs of a rough childhood or a fight with another animal.
After verifying his condition, we immediately placed him in Sequoia’s enclosure – to be with our very own resident great horned owl as a surrogate parent. We were trying to avoid a situation where the owlet
Sequoia did not actively feed the owlet, but fortunately, the owlet was already feeding on its own. By being with Sequoia, the owlet was able to learn when to go to sleep and what to be afraid of. The physical proximity and presence allowed the owlet to visually imprint on the correct species.
It does not take much for an owl to imprint on humans. Human imprinting can occur during the critical developmental window that spans roughly the first three to four weeks after hatching. Because imprinting is a rapid, biologically hardwired form of learning rather than a gradual process of getting used to someone, even a single day or just a few isolated interactive feeding sessions during this critical window can cause an owl to permanently imprint on humans. This is one of the things a wildlife rehabber has to pay particular attention to. The consequence of human imprinting results in an owl that is unafraid of humans. The owl then becomes unreleasable and could even be destroyed, especially if there are not enough resources for another ambassador bird to keep. (Some rehabbers use puppets or species-specific ghillie masks and maintain strict silence policy around young birds).
We wanted to make sure the owlet spent plenty of time with Sequoia. As October rolled around, he was moved to our 100-foot flight cage as soon as it became available for hunting live prey. After two solid weeks of successful feeding, the grown great horned owl was ready for release.
On November 1, he was brought back to the area close to where he was found, and was released. He was rearing to go and when released, he flew off never looking back. We did everything we could for him and we hope he fairs well out there.
