Giving owls a ring
GIVING A HOOT – Find out why ringing owls is so important and could shed valuable data on their behaviour.
At EcoSolutions, rings are placed on all the owls that are encountered as a way to identify them should they ever be found again. Some people may think that we will never see the owls again but the data that is recovered when a ringed owl is found is invaluable. The data allocated to each ring number includes the date the owl was ringed, the location, the species, its condition and other factors.
This data is archived by the Avian Department at the University of Cape Town. One of their favourite ring recoveries was a spotted eagle owl (Bubo africanus) in Dainfern Estate in 2014. During the annual owl box service, the EcoSolutions team found young owlets in one of the Dainfern Estates’ owl boxes. The two owlets were ringed in the late afternoon and the female owl was still in the box… and she already had a ring.
The ring number was checked on the database and it was found that this spotted eagle owl was ringed and released by EcoSolutions eight years prior in 2006, and had travelled 6,7km from the original ringing location.
The information retrieved from ring recoveries is vital to improving our understanding of owl dispersal and fledging distance allowing us to improve our conservation efforts.
Details: Eco Solutions 011 791 7326.
