NEED TO KNOW

• Rescuers saved a female great horned owl stuck in an electric fence and later discovered the bird was likely caring for owlets

• Days later, the Raven Ridge Wildlife Center introduced an abandoned owlet to the adult owl, who adopted it as if it were her own

• The adult owl then adopted another lonely owlet several days after meeting the first

A mother owl, forced to leave her nest after becoming entangled and repeatedly shocked by an electric fence, has adopted two abandoned owlets.

According to an April 1 Facebook post from the Raven Ridge Wildlife Center in Washington Boro, Penn., Warden Bietch, a Pennsylvania game warden, saved a great horned owl that had become entangled in an electric fence surrounding a chicken coop.

“He mentioned that she had not only endured a continuous shock from the fence but was also so tangled that he couldn’t determine the extent of any damage, particularly to her wings, which appeared to be bent in an abnormal position,” the center wrote on Facebook.

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Bietch drove the owl an hour and a half from the rescue site to the center, where experts assessed her and noticed a “brood patch” on her lower abdomen, “indicating that she was caring for a nest of eggs or very small chicks.”

“It breaks our hearts to think that there is a nest somewhere that will likely fail because its mother was rescued from an electric fence around a chicken coop, especially since we have no way of knowing how long she was entangled,” the center noted.

The “good news,” according to the rescue, was that the mother owl escaped the ordeal “with neither of her wings broken, and her legs were in good shape, aside from a few minor scratches, a small laceration, and a lot of messy feathers.”

“Once her wounds are healed and we find no underlying injuries, we will return her to her home, but she has lost her babies. We hope she will nest again soon,” Raven Ridge concluded.

The mother owl didn’t have to wait for her release to start caring for owlets again.

A few days after her rescue, Raven Ridge received its first baby owl of 2026, a “weak and underweight” great horned owlet “discovered at the bottom of a cold cement,” the center shared on April 5 in a Facebook post.

Unable to find the owlet’s nest near the cement stairway, rescuers brought the baby bird to Raven Ridge for care, since the animal was too young to live on its own.

Once the owlet reached the center, the facility’s staff decided to try introducing the baby bird to the great horned owl rescued from the fence because “hatchling and nestling owls tend to imprint easily.”

“Knowing the female Great Horned Owl was still in nesting mode, and the baby owl had lost its mother, our team decided to take a chance and pair the two. This was a risk we were willing to take to allow her to continue her mothering role, ensuring the baby owl would not imprint on humans and could learn from its own species. It turned out to be a win-win for both,” Raven Ridge added, noting that the pairing is getting along “beautifully.”

The center also shared that the adult female is “demonstrating strong protective instincts,” so the facility plans to “release both the adult female and the baby owl together.”

The duo might have company, because several days after the first owlet’s arrival, Raven Ridge received another solo great horned owlet who was “too small to survive on the ground” and was being “relentlessly harassed by crows and blue jays,” per a Facebook post on April 10.

Once again, Raven Ridge introduced the owlet to the mother owl, and once again, the adult bird welcomed the new arrival “as if it were her own.”

“This is a true win-win situation: not only does the wild mother have another owlet to nurture, but the young creature will benefit immensely from the experience,” the center wrote.

The mother owl is now raising her new owlet alongside the other baby owl she adopted, who will act as an “older sibling” for the younger owlet to mimic. Raven Ridge added that the first adopted owlet is taking some time to adjust to sharing their space.

Read the original article on People