We have held Ural Owls for a number of years, and Bea and Bumble were some of our most popular non-display owls, due to them being sponsored by Suffolk Libraries.
Unfortunately, earlier this year, Bea died unexpectedly due to natural causes, leaving Bumble by himself for the first time in years. Although Owls in the wild are solitary, in captivity they can make close bonds with another owl when housed in the same aviary, and our falconers noticed that Bumble was a bit more withdrawn than normal following the sudden loss of Bea.
They started making enquiries at other collections for a female Ural Owl to keep Bumble company. Unfortunately, this species of Owl is not that common in captivity and there are only a handful of collections which house them.
We heard that Cotswold Falconry Centre have a mature female who they were keen to pair with a male and the opportunity was too good to miss! The female has laid eggs previously, but without a male to fertilise them, has not been able to rear her own chicks. However, she has often adopted other chicks and reared these through the fledging, so is proven to have the mothering instinct.
Towards the end of the year, Bumble was collected and made the trip to the South West of England. He has gone to live there on loan, and we are keeping everything crossed that he will get along with his new partner and that together they will produce chicks.
Although listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, Ural Owls face a number of threats similar to our native owls, mainly habitat loss and the associated competition for food and nesting sites with other apex predators such as Eagle Owls.
They have been successfully reintroduced into areas of their historic range, following local extinctions due to persecution and habitat loss. You can read more about this here.
We will keep you updated on how Bumble gets on at Cotswold Falconry Centre, and look forward to welcoming him back to Suffolk in the future.
Bumble has settled well into his new home.