Did you know that some baby Great Horned Owls may already be hatching out of their eggs? The adults start nesting and laying eggs in February, which makes these owls some of the earliest nesters in our region. This also means that in some places, the female may have to incubate her eggs through a snowstorm!
While raising their young, Great Horned Owls (and many other predators) hunt almost continuously to try and find enough food to keep their babies healthy. This is why it is so, so important to avoid the use of rat poisons. Poisoned pest animals, such as rats, become slow and sluggish before they die, which makes them much easier to hunt. If (when...) an adult owl brings a poisoned rat home to their nest, it can kill the entire owl family. This is called secondary poisoning, and evidence of it can even be seen in top predators like bobcats and cougars too.
Learn more about secondary poisoning on our website: https://www.osstewardship.ca/2ndpoison
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