ROANOKE, Va. – Three eastern screech owls stolen from their nest as eggs are now serving a new purpose — teaching children why wild animals belong in the wild.
The Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center in Roanoke recently welcomed the three young owls as the newest additions to its ambassador program. The birds arrived under troubling circumstances, but Executive Director Chester Leonard says their story is now one worth telling.
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“They have a bit of a strange story in that someone found their eggs in a nest, took the eggs out of the nest illegally, hatched the eggs again illegally, and then raised these baby screech owls in their home,” Leonard said.
“Fortunately, someone came over to the home and saw these screech owls in the home setting and turned her in and she was of course forced to relinquish them over to us.”
Once in human care, the damage was already done. Because the owls had been hand-fed from the moment they hatched, they became permanently habituated to humans — a condition that makes release into the wild impossible.
“Because raptors only take one or two days of being fed by hand to be permanently habituated for life, they could no longer be released,” Leonard said. “They would always associate humans as their food source.”
Finding a new purpose
The center plans to keep two of the three owls as permanent ambassadors — one gray and one red, known as a rufous variation. The third owl will be placed at another facility in Virginia.
Despite not being able to return to the wild, Leonard says these owls will still make a meaningful impact.
“We’re going to find another appropriate home for them because we make sure that these owls, although they can’t be returned to the wild, they’re still going to serve some good in this world by teaching wildlife conservation and by reaching kids and telling them the importance of what it’s like to save wildlife, to be stewards of this planet,” he said. “And of course, as I always say, if we can reach the children, we can create lasting generational change.”
A reminder that wildlife belongs outside
Leonard emphasized that the center’s ambassador animals are never simply repurposed patients. Every ambassador at the Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center shares a similar background — illegally kept, imprinted on humans, or confiscated by authorities.
“All the ambassadors we have here are either illegally kept, they were imprinted upon — that’s where they can no longer be released — or they were confiscated by the Department of Wildlife Resources and brought to us because someone had turned them in for illegally keeping wildlife,” Leonard said.
He also issued a clear reminder to the public about the law.
“It is absolutely a crime to keep wildlife. You have to have special permits to keep them, and wild animals belong in the wild as their home, not in a domestic setting,” Leonard said.
What to do if you find orphaned or injured wildlife
Click here to see previous coverage from WSLS about what to do and how to contact a local rehabber.
How to help
The Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center is accepting donations to help cover the cost of their ambassador animals. Donations can be made online at swvawildlifecenter.org/make-a-donation or by mailing a check to:
Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center
5985 Coleman Road
Roanoke, VA 24018
Watch more about the problem with rehabilitating wildlife illegal kept as pets and other conservation work happening in SWVA in the Emmy nominated 10 News Special Vanishing Voices: Saving Virginia’s Wildlife.