Friends with benefits.
That’s what the Owl Box Project in Howick is hoping for after they recently matched two young spotted eagle owls ahead of their release into the wild.
And so far it's been woohoo all around as the two seem to be getting along like birds of a feather.
Raptor expert Tammy Caine from The Owl Box Project said one bird was a captive bred owl from the Crocworld Conservation Centre in Scottburgh.
It was one of two owls hatched by a couple in November and while they found a home in Johannesburg for the one, Crocworld couldn't find a home for its sibling.
She said Crocworld then approached FreeMe Wildlife, a rehabilitation centre which runs the Owl Box Project, for assistance.
They agreed to take on the owl and put it through a rehabilitation process before its release.
“When it arrived we put it with another wild owl that had come here with an injured wing and the idea there was for the owls to make friends and to bond with one another because the wild owl will be a good mentor for the captive raised owl,” said Caine.
Owls mate for life, and If all goes well, and the two are of different genders (a blood test can determine that), they might end up as a couple.
If not, they will be companions when they leave the safety of their current home and have to fend for themselves.
Caine said the idea was to release them simultaneously “because they should stick together once they are bonded and it will make it easier for the captive owl to learn hunting techniques and just enable them to have a smoother transition into the wild.”
She said both owls were about the same age and the focus wasn't on them being mates, but rather companions and for the wild owl to take the other born to captive parents, under its wing.
“They've settled fine. Initially, because they are strangers, they sort of stayed on each end of the pen but now they're perching quite happily together, so already there is a bond formed,” she said.
The owl from Crocworld was raised by its parents, so it knew how to communicate with another owl and everything else, like body language, would already be established, said Caine.
The wild owl knew how to hunt wild food whereas the captive owl was raised on dead food provided for it, but once they were released the captive owl was likely to follow its wild friend and learn how to hunt. However, they wouldn't necessarily stay together for life, just the next few weeks or up to three months, said Caine.
She said if they were siblings they would stay together anyway. So the idea was that even though they didn’t come from the same clutch, because they were both young they would stick together until they reached sexual maturity, and only then decide to find mates for themselves, set up a territory, and breed.
“If they end up being a pair, male and female, there's a very good chance they may stay together for the rest of their lives,” she said.
Currently the owls were supplied with food because they were kept in an enclosure.
However, once a release site was found a “soft release” would come into play whereby the owls would be placed in a temporary pen for about two weeks and continue to be supplemented with food until they could hunt and survive independently.
Caine said owls were apex predators in the food chain and essential for providing balance in an ecosystem. They also bred in relation to their food supply, therefore, more rodents would lead to more chicks.
She also warned that they were wild animals who didn't make good pets because it put them in a “slightly retarded space”.
Although charming as babies, as adults they became aggressive towards people if hand-raised, could attack cats and dogs to defend what they considered to be their territory, and develop severe psychological issues which made them difficult to reprogramme to behave naturally, said Caine.
Crocworld’s Bird Curator Ryne Ferguson said one pair of spotted eagle owls in a residential area could catch up to 3 000 rodents and even more insects a year.
“The biggest threat facing owls in urban areas, unfortunately, is rodenticides and pesticides. Residents are urged to use natural pest control measures rather than using poisons so that we can keep these magnificent creatures safe,” said Ferguson.
For more information or to assist visit www.freemewildlife.org or call 033 330 3036.
The Independent on Saturday