\n The young Little Owl, which is the smallest owl species in the UK, was found alone in a field with no nest in sight and was brought to the Oak and Furrows Wildlife Rescue Centre in Cricklade.\n<\/p>\n
\n The owlet was deemed ‘too young’ to survive on its own, so volunteers have immediately stepped in to provide specialist care until it is strong enough to be released back into the wild.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Now safe with one of our dedicated fostering volunteers, the owlet is warm, well-fed and growing steadily,” confirmed a spokesperson for the Cricklade rescue centre.\n<\/p>\n
\n Once the owl is ready, it will then be moved to an aviary before being released back into the wild.\n<\/p>\n
\n The owlet was rescued and brought to RSPCA North Wilts in Cricklade (Image: RSPCA North Wilts)\n<\/p>\n
\n Even at maturity, Little Owls typically only grow to 21-23cm in length, with an average wingspan of 54-58cm.\n<\/p>\n
\n The tiny breed was introduced to the UK in the 19th century and Breeding Bird Survey data suggests that numbers are declining, with the UK population estimated to be down by 24 per cent between 1995 and 2008.\n<\/p>\n
\n RSPCA North Wilts, which stepped forward to rescue the owlet, took over the Oak and Furrows centre six years ago to prevent its closure.\n<\/p>\n
\n A spokesman previously told the Adver: “We\u2019ve invested heavily in the site, improved facilities and services, and built a strong foundation to ensure we can continue to help local wildlife and pets in need.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Our branch is independent \u2013 we’re not run by national RSPCA. We manage ourselves and are financially independent.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The young Little Owl, which is the smallest owl species in the UK, was found alone in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-719721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}