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preened the owlet, straightening its maturing
feathers. While the owlet was growing strong,
Papa taught it many important lessons, like
how an owl catches a live mouse, and how it
hoots and hisses and clucks and claps its beak
when in danger.
According to Dr. Dana, “In captivity
Papa has retained his great horned owl
behaviors and attitude, especially regard-
ing humans. That makes him the perfect
surrogate for our baby great horned owls.
Papa teaches the babies exactly
what they should think about
people, and the babies are just as
feisty if not feistier than Papa.”
Over fifteen years ago, Papa
was found on the side of a road.
He had sustained a traumatic
wing injury, most likely the result
of being hit by a vehicle. The
last digit from the tip of his right
wing, sort of like a human thumb,
was amputated in the accident.

Afterbeingtreatedbyveterinarians

attheWildlifeCenter,hequickly

healed. Unfortunately, with his wing

injury,hewasunabletobereleased

backintothewild.Greathornedowls

haveaserratedfringealongthefront

edge of their wing feathers, which makes

fornear-silentflight.ButonPapa’sinjured

wing, air no longer flowed smoothly across

hisserratedflightfeathers.Hiswingnow

createdaerodynamicnoisewhenheflapped,

andthatwouldn’tdoatall.Owlsneedtobe

completely silent when hunting for prey. Since

Papa’sflightwasnownoisy,hehadtoremain

attheWildlifeCenter.

However, the center could not use

Papa as an educational animal in programs

forschoolchildren.Hewasjust

too wild. Still, the center

was happy to have Papa

G’Ho. Linda McDaniel,

aWildlifeCenterstaff

rehabilitator says, “It’s

Did You Know?

The average great

horned owl is about

20 inches tall with

a 55-inch wingspan.

TRAUMATIC

MEANS

SEVERE AND

DISTRESSING.

AMPUTATED

MEANS CUT

OFF.

Papa G’Ho with one of the thirty

owlets he has mentored

Owl wing feathers have a serrated

edge for silent f light.

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