Owl be there for you: Grumpy the owl finally fostering an owlet at Kamloops wildlife park

Grumpy, the great horned owl, is finally getting a chance at motherhood.

The bird came to B.C. Wildlife Park in Kamloops in 2001 with a wing injury, most likely from being hit by a car.

For many years, she was on display with other owls, but when the other two owls in the enclosure paired off, Grumpy became a third wheel. After that, staff decided they wanted to try her as a foster parent for owlets. Until now, there wasn't a good opportunity, but this year, the park took in an owlet whose nest was blown onto the ground in a windstorm.

According to B.C. Wildlife Park animal care manager Tracy Reynolds, they were lucky because Grumpy had just laid a clutch of unfertilized eggs when the owlet arrived.

"She was already kind of nesting and doing all those behaviours, so … we just removed the eggs and put the chick, which was quite a big baby, right beside her," she told Daybreak Kamloops host Shelley Joyce.

"We're all so giddy with excitement."

Fostering owls is a technique that's been used successfully at several rehabilitation centres, including the OWL Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society. The benefit of this technique is the older owl can teach the chick while minimizing interactions with humans.

"Nothing beats nature," said OWL general manager Rob Hope.

"Some of these birds are quite maternal and are very giving."

He said at their centre, they have a number of proven foster birds that have successfully raised owlets to the fledgling stage where the birds are ready to start flying. Hope said they continue to monitor the owlets to ensure they are growing properly and do step in if there are issues.

Owlet doing well

So far, Grumpy is doing a great job of looking after the baby owl — now nicknamed Grumpy Baby.

"For the first little while, we made sure we went in and actually fed the baby to make sure that it was getting food, but it's pretty obvious now that she's actually feeding the baby all the food that we're putting in," said Reynolds.

As Grumpy has taken on the role of foster parent, staff at the park have needed to be careful as she gets protective over the baby.

"We have very long BBQ tongs to try and make sure we could reach the baby, but you had to be very, very careful."

The park plans to move the duo into a larger flight pen once the baby starts learning to fly. After the owlet fledges, they are planning to release the baby back into the wild near the location it was found in Chase, B.C.