Released animals find a new home

During December, some rescued animals and birds were given a temporary home at the Riverside Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in Letsitele. These included a thick tailed bush baby (Otolemur crassicaudatus), two wood owls (Strix woodfordii) and one spotted eagle owl (Bubo africanus). They were all brought to the Stanford Lake College property for release, where the habitat is ideally suited for them. The bush baby was a pet whose owners were no longer able to keep him, and he is now a fully grown adult. One of the wood owls was an orphan that fell out of its nest and dogs killed its mother, whilst the history of the other is not known; however, they are both about the same age of approximately three months. The spotted eagle owl was rescued in the Trichardsdal area.

Witnessed by a big group of pupils and teachers and some volunteers from Riverside, both the bush baby and the spotted eagle owl were released in different areas of a forest close to Stanford Lake College.

On the evening they were released, there was a heavy shower of rain, which was a bit of a concern for the owl needing to fly; but the rain eased and both the owl and the bushbaby seemed calm when their boxes were opened and they were set free. The owl soon got his bearings and was venturing around the forest; whilst the bushbaby was heard calling about 50 metres from his release box.

Their progress will be monitored closely for about 2 months, after which the boxes will be removed.

Again a small crowd of interested people gathered a couple of evenings later when the two wood owls (one male and one female) were released just after sunset. Their box was placed in a tree near the Barnyard and other local resident birds immediately recognised their presence and made warning calls. Both owls were a bit tentative, but eventually took great leaps of faith and flew from their box into nearby branches and then back and forth to the ‘home’ tree.

They have been heard communicating with one another in the night following their release, and have been observed looking settled. They will also be monitored for two months.

Releasing these creatures at Stanford is another effort that re-enforces the Go green Eco-schools projects that the College embraces to the full. In this action of releasing animals back to the wild where they belong, we are teaching the youth to conserve and try and fix what humans take away from nature.