Who is guaranteed a job after graduation? This animal "school" is not ordinary

Every spring we receive a large number of young owls in need of rescue. For this reason, we set up an Owl School in 2020, and this year is its fifth year.

What is Owl School?

The Owl School is actually a relatively large cage, which is mainly used to receive and care for rescued owl chicks in spring and summer. The newly received owl chicks must first undergo a physical examination and quarantine observation by a veterinarian to confirm that they are healthy, have no diseases, and have the ability to leave the nest and start learning to fly. Such owl chicks will then be transferred to the Owl School cage.

This year's Owl School students who have not graduated

This kind of group living environment helps the chicks learn how to be a real owl, instead of being overly dependent on humans. If each owl is raised individually, without contact with other owls, and only with humans, they may think that they are also humans, or that humans are owls, which is a problem behavior for wild animals and may hinder their return to the wild in the future. Therefore, we gather the chicks together so that they can live with other owls in the owl school, so as to better maintain their wild nature.

Little owls get a job after graduation

This spring, we have rescued 56 barred owls, as well as other young owls such as the Little Owl, the Collared Scops Owl, and the Red Scops Owl. The arrival of each young bird means a new story, and our mission is to ensure that they can grow up healthily and eventually return to their natural environment.

Released Northern Scops Owl

Since July, the little owls we received have completed their "learning" in the Owl School in batches and successfully "graduated". As of last week, we have released 55 little owls. After adequate care and preparation, these little owls were gradually released back into the natural environment.

Different types of owls have different ecological needs and habitat preferences. Taking this into consideration, when we release them, we must choose the release location based on the natural habitat preferences of different types of owls to ensure that they can adapt to life in the wild smoothly.

Little Owl

For example, three of the Little Owls were rescued from Hongze Lake and were released back to Hongze Lake, returning to their original habitat. In addition, Little Owls prefer open areas, mainly living in wastelands, farmlands and other habitats with fewer trees. We chose such places that are in line with their natural habitats for release to help them quickly integrate into the local ecosystem.

Northern Scops Owl

The scops owls and northern scops owls prefer mountains, so we choose to release them in the mountains to help them adapt faster and find suitable habitats;

Red horned owl chick

Red-horned owls like to live in mountains and forests, so we chose to release them in Zijin Mountain, Laoshan and other places. These places can provide them with rich forest resources, which is conducive to their survival.

Spotted Owl

The largest number of young owls we receive are spotted owls. We choose to release them in places between the city and the mountains, in city parks or on the outskirts of the mountains.

In addition, considering that most owls are nocturnal, we release them at night to reduce external interference and allow them to adapt to the natural environment more quickly. Also, night is when owls are more active, so releasing them at this time can make it easier for them to find food and habitats and quickly adapt to the wild environment.

Although the Little Owl and the Spotted Owl are active during the day, the daytime may make them more vulnerable to attacks by other birds, especially those with a strong sense of territory. These attacks or expulsions will bring additional challenges to their return to the wild. Releasing them at night will reduce these potential problems to a certain extent, so that the little owls can integrate into the natural environment with less difficulty.

What should students who have not graduated do? -------------

There are still a dozen or so owls left in the owl school. These little owls are continuing to receive care and training until their flying ability reaches the standard sufficient to survive in the wild. Once these owls' flying ability and survival skills are up to standard, we will gradually arrange for their release.

Paddle too fast and you'll miss this moving spotted owl

Since there are so many owls, we did not release them all at once, but in batches. We first assessed the condition of the little owls one by one to ensure that each owl had the appropriate flying ability and survival skills before releasing them.

The criteria for evaluating owls for release are mainly based on observing their flight performance. For owls such as the spotted owl, flight speed and stability when landing are particularly important. Ideally, when they land on a branch or other support, they should be able to stand firmly without shaking like an Olympic gymnast completing a difficult move, or as stable as a dart accurately hitting the center of a bull's eye.

Spotted Owl

We will then extend the release time and release them in batches, giving each batch of owls enough time to adapt to the new environment, reducing the challenges they face in the wild, while also reducing the pressure on the ecosystem in the same area and providing each owl with a better chance of survival.

In addition to extending the release time, we will also make the release sites more dispersed. For example, after releasing a batch in the park, the next batch can be released in Zijin Mountain, and the next batch can be released in Laoshan, etc. In this way, we can disperse the distribution of owls in the wild, reduce direct competition between them, and try to let them find habitats that suit them. At the same time, it also reduces the pressure on the ecosystem of a certain area, and try to give each batch of barred owls enough time and space to adapt to the new environment.

No matter how good the school is, it is not as good as the teaching of one's own mother ---------------------

Finally, I would like to remind everyone that if you encounter an uninjured but flightless young bird on the ground with tail feathers already grown, the best option is not to take it home, but to observe the situation of the adult birds in the nearby trees and then send the young bird back to a higher branch so that they can reunite with their family. No matter how hard we try in our owl school, it is not as good as the teaching of the real mother.

I believe that the efforts of more individuals can eventually help more young birds. Forwarding this article to your circle of friends and attaching the content in red above will definitely help more people and birds.

Northern Scops Owl Release Video