Endangered owl found injured two months after release in B.C.
One of just four endangered spotted owls known to be in the wild in B.C. is recovering from an injury after being found along train tracks, slowing the careful plans to revive the species.
The injured bird was released last August along with two others in forests near the Spuzzum First Nation, about 200 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, said Jasmine McCulligh, facility coordinator for the Northern Spotted Owl Breeding Program.
It is thought the owl — named Sitist, which means night in the Spuzzum language — might have collided with a passing train, McCulligh said.
A railway worker noticed the injured bird in October and took it to the Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society in Delta for treatment.
“He was diagnosed with a wing fracture and a scratched eye,” McCulligh said. “That owl has since returned to the breeding centre and his potential for release will be re-evaluated as we get closer to the spring and summer.”
She said the other two owls, also males, are “doing really well.” The three males were released in the same area as a lone female that experts know is in the woods.
Northern spotted owls are a federally endangered species, with habitat loss and competition from the barred owl reducing their wild population.
The injury to Sitist leaves just three confirmed spotted owls in the wild in B.C.
Protection of spotted owls has fuelled decades-long disputes between environmental groups and the forest industry as their future is often tied to saving oldgrowth forests where the birds live.
“The spotted owl is an oldgrowth dependent species, so a single pair of owls requires 30 square kilometres of oldgrowth forest,” McCulligh said.
When the birds were released last year, the Ministry of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship said it was “a historic milestone,” crediting a partnership between the breeding program and the Spuzzum First Nation.
“The transition from a small group of spotted owls in a distinctly designed breeding facility to a healthy wild population is a long-term process, with an unknown success rate. However, the release of these three birds is a significant step toward an eventual self-sustaining population,” the province said in a statement last year.
The province said it would monitor the released owls, including an assessment of the owls’ ability to breed in the wild, using radio telemetry, GPS tags, visual checks and acoustic recording to track their movements and health.
McCulligh said the breeding program, the only one in the world for the species, determines if an owl is fit for release based on a number of factors including genetics and breeding potential, gender, ability to hunt live prey and overall health.