Twenty-eight owls from the South Okanagan Rehabilitation For Owls Centre arrived in Kamloops on Monday (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

B.C. WILDLIFE PARK

Wildlife park steps up to welcome owls escaping South Okanagan wildfire

Aug 6, 2019 | 5:27 PM

KAMLOOPS — The burrowing owl habitat at the B.C. Wildlife Park is a little busier these days.

Twenty-eight new owls were introduced to the park on Monday, escaping the Eagle Bluff wildfire near Oliver.

“I hadn’t heard about the fire until yesterday morning. I got a phone call from Dale from [the South Okanagan Rehabilitation Centre for Owls] and she said they had been evacuated and asked if we had any room for her owls, which are the rehab and the burrowing owls,” said B.C. Wildlife Park animal care supervisor Tracy Reynolds. “We do. We have space for both, so we said ‘for sure, come on up.'”

There are now 59 owls in total in the caged area. Housing the owls was not a question for the park, as long as it had the space.

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“If we were in that situation, we absolutely know there would be a lot of people that would be willing to help us,” said general manager Glenn Grant. “So when we have the opportunity to help them, absolutely we’re going to do that.”

The additional owls is making a more crowded space, and the owls that make the B.C. Wildlife Park their permanent home are slowly adjusting to new visitors.

“I noticed as soon as we put them in yesterday, we had a lot more calling,” noted Reynolds. “There was territorial calling going on, so as soon as we put them in, they knew they were there for sure.”

The burrowing owls are an endangered species. There are three facilities in B.C., including the wildlife park, whose mission it is to care for them.

The park will take some financial hit during the owls’ stay, but Grants say it’ll be minimal.

“Our own program is about $40,000 a year,” he said. “So you translate it, I think it’s mostly going to be housing and feeding costs for the animals while they’re here.”

It’s not known how long the owls will need to stay at the wildlife park. But staff say they are welcome as long as they need to be.