04
September
2019
|
15:36 PM
America/New_York

Visit ZooAmerica on National Wildlife Day

ZooAmerica Supports Wildlife Conservation Efforts All Year Long

National Wildlife Day is today, September 4, and what better way to celebrate than visiting ZooAmerica North American Wildlife Park? ZooAmerica is an 11-acre walk-through zoo that is home to more than 200 animals native to the continent of North America. In addition to caring for these animals, ZooAmerica actively supports local wildlife conservation efforts through donations and established programs. 

In honor of National Wildlife Day, we wanted to share an interesting learning from one of these conservation programs - the Partnering For Barn Owls Project. ZooAmerica has been placing barn owl nest boxes in a number of local barns, including many on the Milton Hershey School campus. Some of the nest boxes are built by summer Zoo campers. 

Barn owl chicks from the nest boxes are banded by the Pennsylvania Game Commission as a part of their ongoing study of this vulnerable species. When checking the barn owl boxes for nesting activity over the summer, one of the barn owl mothers was found to have a band on her leg. She was safely captured to check the band number and then quickly returned to her chicks. They found out the mother was hatched five years ago in Virginia! A biologist for the Pennsylvania Game Commission informed us that they have barn owl banding recovery data over the past 13 years. There have been 105 bands recovered and approximately 12 have been from out-of-state birds.

ZooAmerica is proud of this successful joint conservation program with the Milton Hershey School. If you would like to see a barn owl in person, we recommend visiting ZooAmerica on this National Wildlife Day or any other day this year. There are currently three barn owls on exhibit.