May 19 (UPI) — A great horned owl found covered in concrete was released back into the wild after undergoing surgery to replace its damaged feathers.
The Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab brought the owl to its Wild Friends rehabilitation center after it was found with 25% of its body covered in concrete inside a mixer in St. George in November.
The owl underwent several days of care involving 20-minute baths to slowly remove the concrete.
The process left the owl with damage to its feathers that prevented it from flying silently, a necessary feature for great horned owls to survive in the wild.
Rehab workers had expected the owl to molt and grow new feathers at the start of spring, but the process turned out to not go as expected.
“That led the Wild Friends team to take a training course about a procedure they had never done before: imping, which requires using donor feathers and adhesive to replace the raptor feathers,” the sanctuary said in a news release. “A wildlife rescue in Northern Utah gave Wild Friends feathers from a great horned owl of similar size who had passed away.”
Photo courtesy of Molly Wald/Best Friends Animal Sanctuary
The team carefully studied the owl’s feather patterns to prepare for the surgery.
“We looked at his feathers every few weeks so we knew which ones would have to be done, snipping damaged shafts in advance,” said Bart Richwalski, a supervisor at Wild Friends.
Kelsey Paras, the staff veterinarian at Best Friends, worked with three other staff members to carry out the 90-minute procedure.
They ended up replacing 10 primary and one secondary feather on the owl’s right wing. The bird’s left wing did not require any replacement feathers.
“The first few feathers were extremely nerve-wracking, but as we got into the groove, the imping became more comfortable, and everything went smoothly,” Richwalski said.
Richwalski used a decibel reader to analyze the sound of the owl’s flight once it recovered from anesthesia, and determined it was now quiet enough to return to the wild.
The roof of the aviary was retracted, and the owl flew off under its own power.
“I don’t know that my heart was beating until I saw him leave. I was beside myself, knowing that after all this time, he was healthy and back in the wild,” Richwalski said. “It was such a good feeling.”
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