With habitat destroyed by fires, B.C. owl searches for new home

He was forced out of his home by a wildfire. Now, it’s not clear where Norman, a young Great Horned Owl, will be moving to next.

Norman was rescued in May by firefighters battling the Little Bobtail Lake wildfire, near Prince George. They had him transferred to the Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society (OWL), an organization focused on caring for injured and orphaned birds of prey.

“He was found in a burned out area. How he absolutely had no singe marks, no visible injuries due to the fire was a little bit of a miracle actually,” said Mindy Dick, a member of the facility’s care team.

READ MORE: Baby Great Horned Owl rescued from Little Bobtail Lake fire

For the last several weeks, Norman has been under the watchful eye of Casper, OWL’s resident foster Mom, who’s taught him everything he needs to know to survive in the wild.

He’s now ready to be returned to the wild. Problem is the place he used to call home isn’t safe. The Little Bobtail Lake Fire is 100 per cent contained, but the area is uninhabitable.

“Normally, what we would do is take him right back to where he was found but there’s nothing left. There’s no habitat, there’s no trees. It’s obviously not a safe spot,” said Dick.

The Little Bobtail Lake fire is one of many having an impact on birds of prey during this year’s very active wildfire season. At OWL’s facility in Delta, they recently received two baby hawks from Whistler who were forced out of their homes by smoke.

Further compounding the situation is that, for these birds of prey, this is baby season.

“Smoke inhalation is terrible for these birds. They have very sensitive lungs to begin with. So, all the smoke that’s happening out there with these fires is definitely a hazard to all these birds of prey that are stuck out there,” said Dick.

“I wish we could get to them all.”

For now, the plan is to keep Norman and the others at the facility until a safe place can be found for them somewhere in British Columbia. Dick said they will be working with biologists to see where they can be safely released.

For more information on how you can make a donation to the organization, visit their website.