SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Back Home Safe!

(CNN) -- A trio of men faces charges after allegedly stealing a penguin from Sea World on the Gold Coast of Australia's Queensland and then bragging about it online.
Dirk, one of the park's 29 fairy penguins, was found under Southport pier Sunday night, frightened but apparently not hurt.
The theft on Saturday night was the first of an animal in the park's 40-year history, the park's spokeswoman Renee Soutar said on Monday.
Police alerted Sea World after someone saw pictures of the penguin on Facebook allegedly posted by the three men, who were releasing it nearby.
Sea World then reached out to local media to get the public's help in finding the penguin. Someone then spotted the exhausted Dirk hiding under the concrete pier.
The seven-year-old bird wouldn't have lasted long in the wild, Soutar said. He was born in captivity, and although he was used to the climate, the foot-high penguin would have little defense against predators like sharks, cats or dogs, she said.
Dirk spent the night under veterinary observation before being returned to his enclosure where he joined his mate Peaches.
Police arrested then released the three men, who will appear in court on May 2 on charges of trespassing, stealing and unlawfully keeping a protected animal, said Queensland Police spokesperson Rachel Clark.