Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!orca!isis!leonard
From: leonard@isis.WV.TEK.COM (Leonard Bottleman)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Great Horned Owl
Message-ID: <5004@orca.WV.TEK.COM>
Date: 17 Oct 89 17:37:39 GMT
References: <1812@pbhyg.PacBell.COM>
Sender: nobody@orca.WV.TEK.COM
Reply-To: leonard@isis.WV.TEK.COM (Leonard Bottleman)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Wilsonville, OR
Lines: 33

In article <1812@pbhyg.PacBell.COM> ead@PacBell (Elizabeth A. Dykstra) writes:
>The happy ending to the story is that another Great Horned Owl residing at the
>reserve with severe feather damage will be receiving feather grafts from Hooter
>to replace wing feathers.  This is not as generous as we at the time thought;
>the reserve is interested in not sustaining the cost of an entire year of care
>for the live owl, until he can undergo a normal moult.  With the feather graft,
>the live owl can be released sooner back to the wild.  We wonder whether the
>graft will work, or if it will leave this live owl very vulnerable, and
>possibly shorten its lifespan?
>
>Does anyone know anything about such operations, and their rate of success?

The process is not really "grafting", but "imping". The feather shafts are
hollow, and the replacement feather is trimmed to match up with the broken
feather still in place. The feathers are joined by hot-gluing a splint into
both shafts. The repaired feather is almost as strong as the original, and
will be replaced the next time the bird molts. Bird rehabing centers often
have a catalogued supply of flight feathers for the different birds they
work on (each feather is numbered by its position on the wings).  This is
an old, proven procedure: I learned about it in a wildlife rehabing course
back in 1987.

The reserve is not just concerned about the cost of keeping the bird for a
full year, but also in improving its chance for survival in the wild. I
worked as a volunteer at the Animal Care Center in the Washington Park Zoo,
which rehabs the owls in the Portland area, for two years, and only a small
percentage of the owls that we had to keep for an entire year survived (not
an uncommon survival rate according to my rehab instructors). I suspect
the reserve in question will make sure the owl's weight is up, that it can
fly well, eat on its own, and perhaps make sure it can catch its own food
before releasing it into the wild.

Leonard Bottleman	leonard@orca.WV.TEK.COM