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Two owlets rescued by firefighter Nick Gauthier. Photo by / |
Last month, firefighters were fighting in California. As they were building a control line in the , the , the firefighters cut down a tree that happened to contain two young . One of the firefighters, Nick Gauthier (he’s the one holding the owlets in the photo above) quickly scooped them up and kept them out of harm’s way. Anae Otto, the biologist for that region of the forest, was summoned. “My heart was racing when I received the report of owls on the ground,” Otto told the Forest Service. “I was relieved to find the owlets alive and in fair condition.”
Otto cared for the owls overnight, rehydrating them with a solution of sugar and salt, and eventually feeding them some worms. The next day, she handed the owls over to a wildlife rehabber, Terri Williams, who does volunteer work for the (FWRRS). (Back in 2004, the FWRRS and their work—you guessed it—rehabilitating owlets).
Western screech owls in the western U.S., with a call sometimes referred to as a “” for the way it starts off slow and accelerates, like a . These owlets, which Otto and Williams have christened “Puff” and “Fluff,” will remain at the rehabilitation center for a few weeks before being released back into the wild.