The Red Book owl, unable to survive in the wild, was rescued in Altai

An owl listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation was rescued in the Altai Territory. After the onset of the first frosts, a rare bird was discovered at the edge of the forest in the vicinity of Barnaul. This is reported on the website of Rosprirodnadzor, whose employees participated in the rescue of the bird.

The behavior of the feathered bird alerted the locals — the owl was not afraid of people, easily made contact, did not fly away. The bird is clearly used to communicating with people who fed it, and does not have the skills to independently forage.

"In order to assess the condition and save life, the owl was immediately taken to the Fund for the Conservation of Rare Birds "Saker", where, after examination by specialists, the guesses were confirmed — the bird is absolutely healthy, but it is so used to humans that it cannot survive on its own in its natural habitat," the message says.

As experts suggest, probably someone picked up the owl as a chick, kept it, fed it, but when the bird grew up, it was simply taken to the forest.

"Unfortunately, this often happens with birds of prey — people are touched by small downy chicks, and when they grow up and begin to require a lot of animal food, it becomes very difficult to keep them," the department noted.

Rosprirodnadzor noted that, according to the law, the owner of the animal is obliged to keep it until the moment of natural death. Some species, which include many birds of prey, are prohibited from keeping. You can keep them only in exceptional cases, subject to mandatory notification to Rosprirodnadzor.