An injured owl is back in the wild thanks to swift action by a coastal community in South Africa.
A resident found a female African wood owl lying on the ground at the Zimbali Estate on the country's eastern coast in early September 2025. A local environmental manager called Wildlife Rescue, a local non-profit, for help.
According to the North Coast Courier, the owl appeared to be "dazed and confused, likely having flown into a window or sliding door."
"Wood owls are not common [here], so we were excited to see one," Lindy Elmes, director and founder of Wildlife Rescue, told the Courier.
These birds are more often found in areas with dense forest, so the coastal area where this one was discovered is considered an unsuitable habitat.
After taking the owl in, Wildlife Rescue acted quickly. X-rays confirmed that it had a slight concussion, but it had no wing damage. The organization cared for the owl in a dark, quiet room for a few hours before releasing it into the wild at dusk.
The Zimbali Estate environment team also tagged the owl before it was released to contribute to conservation research and population monitoring.
Although the African wood owl is not currently endangered, the species plays an important ecological role and has to be protected. In general, owls provide natural pest control by eating small rodents. They also help control insects that can damage trees and agricultural crops.
Despite these benefits, owls are often maligned in places where they are found.
"Owls can be of great benefit to humans in controlling rodents in places where populations are high," BirdWatch Zambia said in a Facebook post featuring the African wood owl. "Unfortunately, in Zambia, owls have for the longest time been associated with misconceptions and myths, which compromises their co-existence with humans."
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Definitely 👍 Some myths about owls, according to the International Owl Center, include that they are bad luck or omens of death, that they could carry off or eat a baby, and that they are messengers of witches.
Meanwhile, Wildlife Rescue said the area it operates in is facing rapid expansion. The area is becoming a tourism and industry hub, which creates more challenges for wildlife there.
"With human expansion, local wildlife is often displaced or decimated due to loss of natural habitat, human activities such as death by vehicles, and human-wildlife conflict when local wildlife is perceived as a threat or nuisance to humans," Wildlife Rescue stated on its website. "We have made it our mission to mitigate some of these negative impacts."
The organization has helped save African wood owls before as well as other native wildlife like female vervets and mongoose.
"Wildlife Rescue NPC has been privileged to help some of these incredible birds recover from injury and return to the wild," it said in a Facebook post about its African wood owl rescues. "Each release is pure magic — watching those silent wings vanish back into the night."
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