When they were brought to the Calgary Zoo last summer, only owls remained, and 20 burrowing owls have since been released back into the wild in southeastern Alberta.
“They grew into adults in the zoo over the winter,” said Graham Dixon-MacCallum, a conservation research population ecologist at the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo.
“We are now releasing them as adults in the hopes that they will mate and produce more baby owls.”
This is important because the population of burrowing owls, which smaller than pigeons and distinguishable by their long legs, has shrunk in Canada over the past 40 years.
According to the Canadian list of species at riskCanada’s burrowing owl population decreased by 90 percent between 1990 and 2000 and by an additional 64 percent between 2005 and 2015, with an estimated less than 500 breeding pairs in Canada at this time.
“Green owls were once a common feature of the landscape in the prairies and southern interior of British Columbia,” says a report from Canada’s Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife.
“They are now rare throughout their Canadian range.”
Severe habitat loss, climate change and other changes in the owl’s environment have contributed to population loss, and the Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo says the last-hatched owls within any wild family have about a three percent chance of surviving their first year. to survive.
“Even those who survive to leave the nest are very, very likely not going to survive the migration and are unlikely to return to Canada,” Dixon-MacCallum said.
Therefore, the organization has sought to give the youngest owls a head start with human care at the Wildlife Conservation Center, giving them the opportunity to grow up in a controlled environment without the threats of predators, extreme weather and other factors.
The owls are returned close to where they originally hatched in installed safe burrows.
A wire mesh fence is placed around owl pairs and their burrows to ensure they can mate and lay eggs safely, and new flocks are provided with food until the eggs can be laid.
The Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo says 152 owls have emerged from the nests to date.
“I think efforts like this, for burrowing owls or for other species that are at risk, are important because really, all of these species, I think, really have intrinsic value to exist,” Dixon-MacCallum said.
“And if we don’t try to do something to protect them, we’ll lose them.”
Dixon-MacCallum said he knows cynics may wonder if the owls are worth saving because of their dwindling numbers.
“But burrowing owls have been around on the prairie for millennia. And they’ve only declined in recent decades, and that’s because of changes in the landscape that happen because of things people do,” he said.
“And if people are part of the cause of decline, that means we can be part of the cause of a solution.”
The Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo hopes to see the 20 owls mate and lay eggs this season. The nets will be removed soon so that the owls can fully return to the wild.
The organization will continue to monitor the released owls this year. In July, a new cohort of 30 owls is brought to the zoo, where they hibernate.
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