WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – A baby Great Horned owl that took a 40 foot fall now has a new home with new parents at Wichita store.

Ken Lockwood, owner, and program director of Eagle Valley Raptor Center and center volunteer Rachel Bournival rehomed a baby Great Horned Owl brought to his center by Dodge City Police Department. The baby owl fell from a 40-foot nest in Dodge, and the officers decided to take the baby bird to Lockwood’s center in Cheney to help the animal recover.

“We’re going to be re-nesting it today on a pallet of mulch at Lowes because we did it last year and it looks like the same parents came back,” Lockwood told KSN. “So these parents will foster this baby, because it’s always better to have the natural parents raise them.”

The adoptive parent owls have been residing high on a shelf in the lawn and garden center at the Lowe’s hardware store near North 21st Street and Maize Road in Wichita.

“Once these babies are feathered out, they’ll fly off but they’ll stay around locally and the parents will keep feeding them, Lockwood says. “Here in about four to five months the baby will be able to go out on its own, but the parents will take care of it during that whole time.”

“The thing you have to worry about with birds is that they imprint very easily and if they imprint on a human, then they’re going to go to a human when they’re hungry, scared or hurt,” said volunteer and raptor handler Rachel Bournival. “That’s what we don’t want to happen.”

Lockwood says he is thankful that Lowe’s has allowed the birds to remain as residents in their store, even donating mulch to help the parents raise new adoptees.

The center, which specializes in native Kansas Birds of Prey, says if you come in contact with an injured bird or other animals, take them to a local wildlife rehabilitator. If you can’t find one, reach out to State Wildlife & Parks or U.S. Fish and Wildlife to find a rehabilitator near you rather than trying to care for the animal on your own.

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