No matter where you are in the world, being a farmer can be hard work.
Aside from the difficulty of tending to the crops, making sure everything runs on time and planning for the full year, there’s also the difficulty of contending with outside forces. When you’re working out in nature, your land is often open to many other intruders who can mess up your plans for the season. More specifically, we’re talking about local wildlife.
That’s the problem that one Thai farmer kept running into again and again.
To protect his crops from wild owls, a farmer had built a bunch of protective fences around his crops to stop wild birds from flying in and eating them.
As it turns out, the fences were effective—but they were also very damaging to the local owl populations. After putting the fences up, the farmer came outside to see several baby owlets tangled up in the wires he’d hung there. Seeing what had happened to the birds, the farmer decided to take pity on the birds and to help them get loose.
After a little bit of thought, he brought the birds inside his home and decided to take care of them as best as he could.
While the farmer’s intentions were good, he soon realized that he was in over his head with these birds.
Though he tried for several days to get them to eat, nothing he was doing was working. Eventually, he decided to bring them in to the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT), an organization dedicated to rescuing captive animals and rehabilitating them as best as possible. To get started, the veterinarians at the WFFT decided to take radiographs of the owlets to determine what was wrong.
Still, the scans showed that the birds didn’t have any internal injuries.
Regardless, they were still in serious shock and were having trouble eating anything.
Although they were not in great health, the little owls still had some strength left. To make sure they got the nourishment they needed, volunteers and workers at the organization decided to hand feed the birds themselves with a pair of tweezers over a few days. With that kind of supervision, the animals were finally able to get their strength back.
After about a week of intensive care, the owlets were finally ready to be released back into the wild where they came from.
To release them, the workers brought them away from predators and set up a small nesting box where the birds could rest.
Before finally parting ways, the crew took a bunch of pictures and documented their journey with a post on Facebook:
“We released 2 very photogenic spotted owlets yesterday! A local farmer found them tangled in a net designed to keep birds away from crops. He tried taking care of them but ended up bringing them to WFFT after they didn’t eat for three days. Radiographs didn’t reveal any internal issues but they did have some superficial wounds. They were a little underweight and in shock so we force-fed them and monitored their weight and wounds. A week later they were good to go! We released them together with a nesting box in an area without predators. Be free and stay away from the humans!”
Although it’s unclear what will happen to these little guys now that they’re back in the wild, these little owls are definitely grateful to the WFFT!
Although this is just one small example of the work that this organization does, the WFFT’s work is wide-ranging. Aside from providing rehabilitation services, they also campaign to end animal abuse and exploitation all throughout Thailand. They provide educational services to younger citizens and children about how to protect local wildlife and animals, all to preserve the local ecosystems. Through efforts like theirs, animals that are hurt by humans are often given a second chance. For these two owlets, their help made all the difference.
Special salute to the WFFT for all of their hard work!
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