From Owl Rescue Centre
We rescued this young lady this afternoon at my least favourite place on the planet, the Mai Mai market in the south of Johannesburg CBD, after we’d received inside information that one of the traders had a live owl inside a small taped up box.
Live wildlife is not a big sell at this market in my opinion, most of what’s traded is animal skins and parts. Hence, a live baby barn owl will generally be confined to a box until it succumbs and then sold off as muthi.*
Bad news is that this specific 100 year old market has heritage status, which means the authorities generally look the other way when cases like this arise. But, there is some good news, and that as it seems the trade of wildlife, especially those that are still alive, is on the decrease.
We’ve named her Charlie 🙂
- Muthi is the Zulu word for tree, but in this context it refers to South African traditional medicine.
She’s so flawless I thought she was stuffed
I don’t know if owl taxidermy is allowed anywhere anymore or not. On one hand, I like people not being able to kill owls for home decor, but on the other hand, the ones in museums could be so much better than what is often there now since the art has come a long way.
I did a taxidermy owl review after my trip to Pittsburgh, as the Carnagie Museum had quite the collection. There are some really beautiful ones, a bunch of meh, and some that made me feel truly sorry for those birds. If you’re not opposed to stuffed owls and haven’t seen that post, I think it’s a good one.