Mowgli from Indi-owl-na

Maruki_Hurakami, 9 months ago

I don’t live all that far from this place! Thanks for posting. I’m going to have to contact them.

anon6789, 9 months ago

That’s awesome! I have one about 10 minutes from me, but it’s only open twice a year. They have all kinds of owls, hawks, foxes, possums, beavers, and random other things. I always try to go to check out who all is new.

It looked like these guys have some kestrels and merlins and also bald and golden eagles, so you’ll get to see the tiny ones and huge ones. If you’ve never seen an eagle up close before, it is very impressive. Peregrines are also very cool. They look like little rockets. They’re the fastest animal in the world.

If you do go, make sure to put up some pictures here! It’d be nice if people actually got inspired by some of these posts. I always try to find ones people can actually visit. It takes a bit of work to find a good place that actually has decent pics and info. Many are really small and can’t afford those kinds of extras.

You should be able to learn a lot from the handlers and maybe find some love for some new animals. Vultures are highly underrated and fascinating creatures. Their bodies are very purpose built and most of their strange looks are for sanitary reasons, given their role in the ecosystem.

I’m rambling now cuz you have me excited for you, so I hope you go, bring a friend, tell others, share pics, etc!

Maruki_Hurakami, 9 months ago

I will def post pictures after I go! I really appreciate the effort it takes to find good things to post. I’d love to be able to see an eagle up close! We have a barred owl that hangs around our house but it’s so hard to get a good picture of it.

anon6789, 9 months ago

Very nice! We had a barn owl on our fence as a kid. That’s been the best I ever really got to see one in the wild. I hear the great horned owls where I’m at now, but haven’t ever gotten to see them. I think I’m in the wrong side of the woods from where they go. I did see one that must have gotten something to eat right at the edge of the road a few weeks ago. We saw the cat in front of us swerve and when we got there it was a giant GHO! I went by a couple days later and didn’t see signs of anything, so I hope he flew away before anything happened to him.

It is fun posting here, and I was really hoping to get people to visit these places. Plus I get to learn more things. This week I learned that the ear tufts are called plumicorns, and that in French, they have different words for owls with and without tufts. The one word for owl also is slang for cool/awesome/etc.

anon6789, 9 months ago

Mowgli is a female Great Horned Owl that was accidentally mal-imprinted on humans by another rehabber. She was transferred to us to be an education ambassador. Because she is such a hard mal-imprint, she has attached herself to one of our volunteers. She believes him to be her mate and is jealous of his attention to other people or birds. This is a good example of the danger that can ensue from the release of a bird having this condition, however, while it is a shame that she cannot pursue her normal, wild life, she is relatively easy for him to handle and makes a wonderful education ambassador.

Mowgli was named for the little boy in The Jungle Book, as she was raised and greatly influenced by a species other than her own. Born in 2008, she is a very healthy and large owl, having been fed quality food and vitamins ever since she was a hatchling.

Great Horned Owls are called the “Tigers of the Sky” – they are strong warriors that are the only natural enemy of skunks. GHOs live near the edges of open spaces such as fields and prairies. They are open area hunters and are adaptable to climate, living from the Arctic down through temperate climates all the way to the furthest tip of South America. We sometimes refer to GHOs as the 18-wheelers of the raptor world. Their talons can deliver 450 pounds of pressure per square inch!

More photos from this event on their Flickr page