Tale of Tails

Great-Horned Owls
Andi Gossett

Great Horned Owls are commonly depicted in scary movies, swooping down from the night sky with their talons outstretched, but there is definitely nothing scary about the three baby owls brought to WildCare on March 6. Looking more like balls of cotton than birds of prey, the two-week-old owls were found in an area of construction near 134th and South May in Oklahoma City. We hoped that only the nest tree was cut down. WildCare staff members took the baby owls back to the site to reunite them with their parents, armed with a make-shift nest donated by Hobby Lobby. Unfortunately, all the trees covering many acres were all cut down. Director Rondi Large said, "There wasn't even one tree left to put the make-shift nest in. So there wasn't any option for these babies then to take them back to Wildcare. It's a sickening feeling driving off with perfectly healthy babies that can't be reunited with their parents solely because of man."

"With all the bulldozing and construction going on, the parents have nowhere to live. They've moved on ... where, we don't know," Large says.

The owls, still covered in gray baby fuzz, were each hatched a few days apart. The largest, who we suspect is the oldest, weighed in on March 6 at 577 grams. The middle owl weighed 526 grams and the smallest weighed 326 grams. As of March 12, the owls had gained an average of 222 grams collectively. Medium overtook Large, weighing 793 grams as opposed to his sibling's 732 grams. Small gained 244 grams, weighing him in at 570. When fully grown, the owls will weigh anywhere between 1000 and 1560 grams, with the females usually outweighing the males by around 300 grams.

Great Horned Owls are the second-largest owls found in North America, outweighed only by the Great Gray Owl. Great Horned Owls are found in most of North and South America, only absent from the northernmost tundra regions of Alaska and Canada. They live in a variety of habitats, from the woodlands of the Northwestern United States to the rain forest of the Amazon, as well as the desert and mountains. They eat a variety of birds and small mammals, especially rabbits, mice, ducks, and crows.

These baby owls will be raised at WildCare until the next fall, then they will be released back into their natural habitat. They will have to learn to fly and hunt without the aid of their mother. Luckily for the owls, much of flying and hunting comes instinctively. Usually, Great Horned Owls take their first flight in 63-70 days, or two months, after hatching. At this time, they will be put in a large outside enclosure with live prey, where their instincts will take over and they will begin to kill their own food. According to Large, the fact that they didn't have a mother to teach them shouldn't affect their success in the wild. After they have grown, they should be able to live out their lives in their natural environment with no indication that they ever spent time at WildCare.