6688 When two Great Horned Owls started nesting outside Nevada’s Desert Research Institute in early March, the staff there were thrilled. They quickly contacted the state’s Department of Wildlife, and together the organizations set up a webcam so that they—and the rest of the world—could check in on the owls when they weren’t in the office. That’s when things started getting weird. The owls, as it turned out, weren’t a mated pair like DRI and NDOW staff originally thought. They were two females, nesting side by side, and they had what appeared to be the same male mate. Great Horned Owl males are responsible for bringing all food to the nest in the early stages of egg and chick rearing, and the webcam showed the male coming to visit and feeding both females each night. The females’ comraderie didn’t stop there, however. When the larger of the two female’s eggs failed to hatch, she hopped across the rock that separated the two nests and started helping the...