Suffolk Little Owl 'too fat to fly'

29/01/2020

A Little Owl, unceremoniously rescued from a Suffolk ditch as it was unable to fly, has been declared "extremely obese" by the Suffolk Owl Sanctuary.

The soggy owl was found in a ditch in the county in early January and, in these circumstances, wildlife rescue centres generally find that birds are carrying injuries, or occasionally have become waterlogged.

However, Suffolk Owl Sanctuary was surprised to find that it was in fact extremely overweight. Upon assessing the owl, a female, it weighed in at a rather chunky 245 g – roughly a third heavier than a healthy adult female Little Owl. It was unable to fly due to the large fatty deposits around its body.

It is extremely unusual for wild birds to get into this condition naturally, so the vets decided to investigate some obvious scenarios – the first being that it was possibly an escaped aviary bird. There was no indication of rings or chip identification, and asking around in the local area also didn't produce any leads.

They therefore decided to observe the rotund bird over a period of time for signs of a captive history – familiarity with 'artificial' foods used in aviaries, such as bright yellow chicks, can be a telltale sign. However, the owl didn't show any hints of previous confinement and has readily taken 'wild' food types, such as dark mice.

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Little owls on the move

Date:  March 12, 2019

Source:  University of Freiburg

The little owl, Athene noctua, is a small nocturnal owl and is classified as an endangered species on the German Red List. In recent years the existing population of little owls has successfully been stabilized in the south-west of Germany, and in some places numbers are even rising. In neighboring northern Switzerland on the other hand there is still no established population of little owls, even though habitat conditions seem suitable for the species. Now, a team of researchers headed by Severin Hauenstein from the Department of Biometry and Environmental Systems Analysis at the University of Freiburg has researched whether juvenile little owls from Germany could reach and re-colonize northern Switzerland. The scientists have published their results in the peer-reviewed journal Ecological Applications.

"It is difficult to predict how animals will disperse," says Hauenstein. To explore the dispersal potential of little owls, he and his colleagues from the Swiss Ornithological Institute in Sempach, Switzerland, the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle-Jena-Leipzig (iDiv), the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig and the University of Regensburg have developed an individual-based computer model. Using simulations, the researchers are able to assess whether individuals from the currently expanding little owl populations in south-western Germany are able to migrate to suitable habitats in northern Switzerland. Intensive farming and a steady loss of habitat has caused virtual extinction of the little owl in Switzerland.

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Rare owl given the gift of flight after a double wing transplant

Nick Harding 

7 APRIL 2018 • 2:00PM

A rare owl badly injured in a road accident has been given the gift of flight after a double wing transplant.

The injured Little Owl lost several of its vital flight feathers and others were damaged beyond repair. It would have perished in the wild.

A member of the public rescued the bird and took it to the Wildlife Aid Foundation, where vet Maru Urbina rebuilt both the owl’s wings by grafting donor flight feathers from a dead owl into the empty feather shafts.

The detailed procedure is known as imping and is rarely carried out on wild birds.

Feathers used from the donor wing were matched to the correct location on the live wing. Vets carefully cut and angled each one before attaching it with surgical glue.

Wire was also used to create artificial spines to make grafting easier. The owl’s broken and damaged feathers were also removed and replaced.

Little owls are rare in the UK and it is suspected that just a few thousand breeding pairs remain after dramatic population decline in the past 50 years.

The injured owl was believed to be a few months old and was discovered in Southall, Middlesex flapping around on the ground.

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Rare 'ghost owl' with white feathers spotted in Britain

By Jasper Hamill, The Sun

(Credit: Caters News Agency)

An incredibly rare ghostly white "Ino" owl has been spotted in the UK.

The beautiful pure white owl was photographed at a secret location, on private land just outside of Durham City Center.

It is a British species called a Little Owl which has been turned white due to a rare genetic condition known as Ino, which makes it look a bit like an albino.

Photographer Hilary Chambers, a member of the Durham Bird Club, took the extraordinary pictures but was asked to keep the location a secret in a bid to protect the rare bird.

  

The 68-year-old originally thought it was an Albino owl or a Leucistic owl but presented her incredible shots to Hein van Grouw, bird curator at The National History Museum, who later confirmed it was actually an Ino bird.

"You learn something every day," Chambers said.

"I am a keen birdwatcher and photographer and have been doing this for about 15 years now.

"I have had some great encounters over the years and you just never know what you are going to see next."

Albinism is a congenital disorder characterised by the complete or partial absence of pigment in the feathers and Leucism is a condition in which there is partial loss of pigmentation in an animal resulting in white, pale, or patchy coloration of the feathers but not the eyes.

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How can anyone do this to a poor, defenceless owl?

The Little Owl – one of the UK’s smallest owl species – was found on Friday lunchtime (August 16) by a lady walking with her young son in Eversley Park, Low Street, Sherburn-in-Elmet.

The lady had spotted some youths around 16 years of age acting suspiciously near a tree.

When she went to investigate, she found the bird with blue twine wrapped tightly around its wing. The owl had then been hung from one branch and the twine tied to a second branch, leaving the bird suspended in mid-air by its wing.

The bird had then been spun round and round in the breeze and the twine had tightened so much that it had cut through its wing and into the flesh.

The lady put her child onto her shoulders and between them they got the owl down. She took it to the local vet, where the creature had the twine removed and was given anti-shock treatment and other medication to relieve its pain.

The animal is now being cared for by Selby Wildlife Rehabilitation, but was so badly injured that it may have to be put down.

The RSPCA and police are investigating the cruel act.

Annette Pyrah, from Selby Wildlife Rehabilitation, said the owl had suffered severe injuries to his wing.

“He has deep lacerations where the twine has dug into his side,” she said.

“He survived the night, but may never be able to fly again. He will be seen again by the vets who will advise his ongoing care or whether he has to be put to sleep”.

A reward of £300, with another £500 pledged on the social media site Twitter, is being offered to anyone with information which could help find the culprits. Call police via 101.

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/top-stories/how-can-anyone-do-this-to-a-poor-defenceless-owl-1-5965812

“Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it.”

Mark Twain

Swiss recovery programme shows increase in bird species

Over the past ten years the population of Little Owl in Switzerland has increased after a sharp decline. Hoopoe has more than doubled and Corncrake has come back at the level of breeding species after almost reaching the level of extinction in the 1990’s. These are some of the results of the Swiss Species Recovery Program for Birds.

This programme, which was launched in 2003 by SVS/BirdLife Switzerland together with the Swiss Ornithological Institute and the Federal Office for the Environment, provides safe species-specific nesting sites and improves or creates habitats providing sufficient food. A common coordination unit is partly based in Zurich, at SVS/BirdLife Switzerland and in Sempach, at the Ornithological Institute.

At the beginning of the programme a sound analysis of the target species was made. Endangered species were only included if they were not naturally rare (e.g. at the edge of the breeding area). A next step was the realisation of an assessment aiming at measuring the sufficiency and relevancy of the existing conservation measures in habitats and sites for the conservation of these species, or if they needed additional measures. The result was that 50 priority species were in need of specific measures, which would be delivered by the programme.

During the last ten years actions in the field have been carried out for 30 species and six official action plans were produced; the first ones for species conservation in Switzerland. The action plans should give the programme even more strength and extend its outcomes to more than 50 species.

For more information, please contact: Werner Müller and Raffael Ayé


http://www.birdlife.org/community/2013/01/swiss-recovery-programme-shows-increase-in-bird-species/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=swiss-recovery-programme-shows-increase-in-bird-species