ozart

Eurasian Eagle-owl:  Bubo bubo

The oldest trained bird at the Centre is a Eurasian Eagle-owl. Mozart was hatched in April 1974 and, as a four week old youngster was reared by Jemima Parry-Jones. He started his career with humans by going to college with Jemima. He attended the Royal Academy of Music daily, arriving in a cardboard box which was his first home, carried on Jemima’s lap each morning on the London Underground. There he delighted British commuters by raising his head over the top of the box and staring at them with large orange eyes, and on occasion turning his head upside-down to make sure he was seeing things correctly. He grew quickly as owls do, and soon learned that if he walked up the side of the box he could tip it over. From that point on, his life became much more fun, although not always from Jemima’s point of view. Young owls, when tame, are very curious and like most young things, like to put items in their mouths, or in his case beak. Pencils, shoelaces, electric cables and other things were gently but firmly removed, and he was given crumpled newspaper balls to play with and destroy. He scared the students greatly one day when he had got tired of playing and gone to sleep – lying face down, with his legs stretched out behind him, looking remarkably dead. However he was not dead, but fairly annoyed at being woken in a panic. He continued to grow and grow and eventually to start to use his now large wings until at the end of the summer term in his first year, he could almost fly. He now weighed four pounds, stood nearly two feet high and had a wingspan of close to six feet. Luckily as term time was over, Mozart and Jemima returned to the Centre and Mozart began to be what he has spent the last thirty years being, a superb bird for teaching and educating all ages about birds of prey and owls. To start with he was tethered on his own house, and surveyed the rest of the Centre from the top of an A frame compartment. Later in his life he had and still has his own specially designed aviary. Mozart is one of the most handle-able birds we have known, and will tolerate things that others will not. As a general and important rule we do not stroke the birds we work with; mostly they do not enjoy it, and it is not good for their feathers. However on some special occasions we do allow it. Mozart was and is perfect to introduce to parties and groups of blind children and adults, who are able to ‘see’ him by touch. There have been times when this tolerant and charming owl was literally hidden by the hands of children, feeling his shape and size, his large and sharp talons and even having small fingers in his ears. Those who have had the pleasure of meeting him so intimately have never forgotten the experience. Mozart is bonded to humans and to Jemima particularly, and like a wild bird, he likes to prove what a good mate he would be, so he is very vocal, and during the breeding season presents Jemima with food on a daily basis. The dead mice and rats are tactfully put back in his enclosure when he is not looking. European Eagle-owls have been known to live to over 50 years in captivity, so we hope that Mozart has only reached middle age and will be around for visitors to ICBP to meet in the same way he has taught and influenced so many visitors in his first 35 years.