In the Moscow Zoo, a pair of Ural owls became parents for the first time in 10 years

Rare Ural owl fledglings hatched in the Moscow Zoo for the first time in 10 years. Ural owls are large, majestic earless owls. Although their habitat is large and not limited to one single area, they’re called Ural owls, because they were first seen and described in the Urals region. They are on the Red List of Threatened Species.

“Ural owls are extremely skittish and secretive. They’re very reluctant to lay eggs in captivity. Our ornithologists worked long and hard to make them absolutely comfortable. They moved them from one enclosure to another, offered them nests in various corners and made shelters for them. The owls refused to procreate for a long time. Finally, our efforts were rewarded: the couple had offspring. That was a landmark event for the Moscow Zoo. The fledglings strengthened the rare owls’ reserve captive population. When they grow up, we will send them to leading Russian or foreign zoos to find their spouses and have families of their own,” said Svetlana Akulova, Director General of the Moscow Zoo.

You can admire the little ones in the old part of the Zoo, in the Owls Row located between enclosures housing pandas and flamingoes. The Zoo has five Ural owls in total: the parental couple, one adult female and two fledglings. For a long time, ornithologists couldn’t see the offspring. They saw the male carrying food for his spouse to the nest that was hidden from view, and only knew that eggs have hatched after they heard characteristic babyish squeaks. Later, the mother also started feeding the little ones: she started tearing meat apart to give it to them in small bites.

After the fledglings got stronger, they left the nest. Their parents do not interfere with their exploring, but keep their restless progeny under close watch. The little owls are very inquisitive. When people approach their enclosure, they fly closer to take a better look. Sensing danger, they start snapping their beaks threateningly, turning their heads side to side.

For now, their bodies are covered in baby down. They will get grown-up feathers in a few months. At this point, ornithologists are unable to tell their sex. They will only be able to do that by running DNA tests of their feathers. Right now, the fledglings can already feed themselves without their parents’ assistance. Ural owls mostly feed on mice.

Their habitat stretches from the lower reaches of the Wisla river and the Scandinavian Peninsula to the Pacific Coast including Sakhalin and the South Kuril islands. They inhabit mixed forests where lots of conifers grow. For the most part, they make their homes around the edges of the woods, close to meadows and marches. They can migrate to steppes in winter. Their population in the wild is declining steadily due to poaching, deforestation and food base disappearance.

The Ural owl is one of the largest owls. Their bodies can be up to 0.7 meters long, their wingspan can reach 115 centimeters. Their feathers are light ocher colored and covered in brownish-grey markings. Their unique feature that gave the species its other name, long-tailed owl, is their long, dark-striped tails sticking out from under their folded wings.

The initial meaning of “неясыть” (a Russian name for owls) is unclear. There are several versions. The word has been used in the Old Russian and Old Church Slavonic languages. Some researchers interpret it as “insatiable”, “gluttonous”, others – as “not for eating”, “inedible”. By the way, earless owls have enviable appetite: each of them can eat several rodents a day.

They are active at night, and by day if the weather is overcast. Like all owls, Ural owls are silent predators. They wait in ambush, locating their prey by ear, then fall from the sky to snatch it. In the wild, they feed on rodents: mice, shrews, squirrels, chipmunks, along with frogs and lizards, large bugs, sparrows and other small birds. They form steady couples within permanent habitation areas. They may relocate their nest within that area to protect it from their natural enemies: eagles, golden eagles, hawks or bears. Only about half of their young reach adulthood.

Ural owls are extremely chatty birds. In the woods, you can distinguish them by their drawn out, high-pitched cries that sound like “hoooow”. They can also bark and hoot.

In the wild, Ural owls live for about 10 years, in captivity – up to 20 years.

The family of weeper capuchins in the Moscow Zoo also had a little bundle of joy this year. You can watch the newborn in the House of Monkeys pavilion in the new part of the Zoo. The caring mother rarely lets the baby out of her sight so far, so its sex is yet to be determined. At four months of age, it will start running, climbing trees, and playing on its own. That’s when zoologists will be able to examine it, determine its sex and give it a name.