Rescue owl has sweetest reaction to toy

Baby owl instantly melts for stuffed toy

Transcript

00:00 This little owl blew out of the tree after wind storms and the nest was destroyed.

00:05 We have a little stuffed owl that we put in the incubator with him and the baby owl snuggled up

00:10 to that stuffed animal just like in the nest with mom. I'm Tracy and this is a story about

00:15 owls. For GeoBeats there was no way to reunite the baby owl with the mother great horned owl.

00:21 The Pennsylvania Game Commission made arrangements to make the over an hour drive to our facility

00:26 and the wildlife rehabilitator and founder of Raven Ridge Wildlife Center. I administered some

00:31 fluids, it was dehydrated, got it into an incubator and then started to gradually hand feed the owl.

00:37 We wear camouflage covering over our head because baby owls imprint very easily so we wear the

00:44 camouflage over our heads so they don't see us. They don't recognize and think that it's human.

00:49 When the baby owl came in we put a little stuffed replica of an owl in the incubator for the baby.

00:55 It's something for them to bond with or snuggle up with. We have little hearts that we turn on

01:01 that have a heartbeat. This little owl kind of recognized the eyes and the outline and it just

01:06 went right up to it and I think it could hear the heartbeat and it just snuggled with it which made

01:11 it more comfortable. For two weeks the baby was with that stuffed owl and then we were able to

01:17 introduce this baby owl to Barrow who is our foster dad. He's non-releasable after being hit

01:23 by a car. He has fostered over a hundred baby great horned owls.

01:27 Very quickly the baby owl was looking up at Barrow. It clicked like this is like my stuffed

01:42 animal and Barrow looked down at the baby. It was kind of like love at first sight for the both of

01:47 them. The baby stays very close to Farrow and Farrow is very protective of that baby. The little

01:53 owl now is starting to learn flight and coming up on the perches with Barrow. Barrow can't fly

01:59 very well but he can fly enough to get up to the higher perch and that was the goal for the baby

02:05 and this is what you need to do. So Farrow is showing him how to fly to get to the highest

02:10 perch. The baby owl will be going into a big flight tent to start to really strengthen those flight

02:15 muscles. This owl will be acclimated enough to know that I don't need a human and I'm independent

02:22 on my own. They get extremely aggressive and that's what we want. We have the flight pen set up

02:27 that we can see the baby but they can't see us so we can make sure that the baby is eating on its

02:34 own. It's able to find prey on its own. It's able to land properly, take off properly and sustain

02:40 flight. After that point we will be able to release the owl. Farrow seems to be a little depressed but

02:51 that's natural and we comfort him. We're able to go in there and give him a little bit more

02:55 attention and then he kind of knows, okay the season is done. I did my job. Till next spring,

03:01 till I get my next set of babies.