An owl that was heartbroken after it lost its mate has made an unlikely friend: a stuffed penguin toy.
The barn owl was found sitting in a road in Australia next to his partner, who had been killed in a traffic accident.
"There was physically nothing wrong with him, but because they mate for life he was very depressed," wildlife rescuer Karen Ledger told ABC Australia, a public news service produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. She is the Port Macquarie bird coordinator for Fostering and Assistance for Wildlife Needing Aid (FAWNA) a wildlife rescue organization.
Barn owls are found across Australia and usually hunt only at night. These birds mate for life but may form a new pair bond if one dies before the other.
After he was rescued, the sad owl sat in his cage with "his eyes closed and head down," Ledger said. "I just thought, What can I do for you? You are going to die if I don't help you," she said.
Ledger decided to provide the owl with a buddy, in the form of a cuddly penguin toy.
"I happened to have a stuffed toy penguin that was about the same size as him, so I sat it next to him," she said.
The unorthodox companionship appeared to help the owl, who began to slowly recover from his sadness.
"After a couple of days, he started brightening up and opening his eyes," Ledger said. "He came back to the point that he was well enough to be released."
This was one of many innovative solutions that Ledger has come up with over the years in order to care for the birds FAWNA rescues. "You have to use think outside the square, just look at what you've got and adapt," she said.
Another challenge was a white-faced heron, nicknamed Herriot, that was unable to walk when he was found.
"He couldn't use his legs for unknown reasons. He might have been hit by a car," Ledger said. "I was trying to figure out how to make a long-legged bird walk when it doesn't want to."
Resourcefully, Ledger made a makeshift sling for the bird so she could help him as he regained the use of his legs.
"The only thing I could think of was to get a pair of my husband's undies and make a temporary sling with a pair of stockings," she said. "I put the heron in the sling and physically made him use his legs three or four times a day until he could walk by himself."
Eventually, Herriot could walk on his own again and was released several weeks later. "Every once and a while, I see him fly over our house...or on a big pond not far from me," Ledger said. "It's very nice to see him still surviving out there on his own."
Ledger urges people who come across an injured bird to contact a wildlife shelter rather than attempting to care for it at home. "Please don't hang on to them. You are doing more damage to the animal than you realize, and please don't try and feed them," she said.
"A lot of people think they can syringe in a bit of water," she continued. "If you don't do that correctly, it will go into their lungs and they can drown and will die."
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