Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Ecstatic kids watch rehabbed owl set free
About two feet tall with spooky round, yellow eyes, the bird lifted off and landed in the nearest tree, watched by hundreds of students at a city schoolyard Wednesday.
Wildlife experts had nursed the owl, a small male estimated to be less than a year old, back to health in anticipation of his release and arranged with Acadia School officials to let the entire student body watch the flight.
The students surged toward the owl and his keepers in their excitement to see the bird set free, but the determined efforts of teachers linking arms like a living fence kept them a respectful distance back.
"We tried to keep them quiet, but they were so excited," Acadia principal Elaine Egan said afterward.
"He's going to be a symbol for these kids and it was important for these kids to have a part in this. They'll be talking about it for a long time," said McCarthy, an Assiniboine Park Zoo technician and owl rescuer.
The owl was hunting in September when he chased a rabbit into a soccer net at Acadia. The owl had the rabbit in his talons but the net had him by the wings, hopelessly tangled.
School officials called the city for help. Assiniboine Park Zoo officials answered the distress call.
X-rays showed the wing wasn't broken but the tissue was torn.
A week in the zoo hospital and the owl headed to rehab at the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre, a private agency run by volunteers who nurse wildlife back to health.
alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 4, 2008 A6
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