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, November 27, 2012

Reunite Wildlife!

Barn owls returned to their palm tree nest.
Every spring, wildlife rehabilitation centers are flooded with baby raptors.
A lot of these juveniles are uninjured, but were rescued as ‘orphans’.

But what if as many as half of these young birds are not orphans at all, but just had some mishap—a storm, a tree cut down—that separated them from their parents?

What if well-meaning humans are unintentionally taking healthy young raptors away from their parents just because they don’t understand the birds’ normal behavior patterns?

At "Reunite Raptors" They do what is needed to do what’s best for these young animals—reunite them with their own parents. 
 If that is not possible, then fostering to another wild nest is a good alternative."

Either way, reuniting baby animals takes time and is best carried out by a dedicated team of resourceful volunteers - something many wildlife hospitals say they can't spare. Each year, then, a significant number of healthy babies are raised in captivity, a paradigm  advocates of reuniting hope to see change in coming years.
Many advocates  have joined up with other leaders in the field to develop guidelines to encourage more and more rehabilitators to adopt the practice.

Every 'baby season' wildlife hospitals are inundated with 'orphans' - many of which are healthy and should never have been picked up. Some need to be returned to where they were found, others might need a lift back into their original nests, others might need to have their nests totally retrofitted.

Wildlife rehabilitation centers are vitally needed to provide care for injured animals, and for real orphans. Reuniting and fostering puts healthy juveniles back in the wild, and allows them to do a better job of caring for the animals that truly need them.

Visit their website by clicking  HERE and see how you can help.

"Young wild animals stand the best chance of living normal lives and surviving as adults if they are raised by wild parents, as opposed to being raised by rehabilitators in a captive environment. From wild parents, young learn what to eat, where to forage, how to hunt, what to fear, where to shelter. 
They learn valuable social skills, in some cases their own dialect, and they are allowed time to disperse naturally into their home territory. 
No human, no rehabilitation program - not even the best in the world, will ever be a fitting substitute."  ~ Rebecca Dmytryk



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