KAZIRANGA: A rare owl was rescued this afternoon from the Bokakhat Wildlife Division and brought to the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) here.Eyewitnesses said they saw an uncommon bird being chased by a crow in the morning. The bird tried to fly away, but somehow dropped into a courtyard in a house on the outskirts of the town. It was picked up by residents who realised it was an owl. They promptly handed it over to forest personnel at the Bokakhat Wildlife Division office.

The assistant conservator of forests, Mr LN Baruah, immediately drove down to CWRC for treating the bird and rehabilitating it. The owl was identified as a Bay Owl (Phodilus badius) of which there seem to be no sighting records from the area. The bird was examined and found to have no external injury. It was housed in a hard paper box in a dark room. Since the bird did not have any injuries, both Mr Baruah and CWRC personnel decided to release the bird in the evening.

According to Salim Ali and Dillon Ripley, the Bay Owl is a rare species found in Sikkim, Manipur, Nagaland, and along the banks of the Brahmaputra in Upper Assam. It is confined to heavy evergreen forests in submontane tracts and foothills.

Another animal at the CWRC, however is biding its time. It is a six-month old male leopard cub (Panthera pardus) which was recently brought to the CWRC campus form the Sivasagar Divisional Office for treatment and care. Villagers of Amguri in Sivasagar district while trying to trap its mother with a live bait ended up trapping the cub instead. Villagers said the mother used to lift livestock from their areas. The forest department decided to trap and translocate it elsewhere.

According to the villagers, the mother left the trapped cub for good as it had to fend another cub as well. The helpless cub was initially nursed in the campus of the forest department. Once it started to gain weight and had spent about six months in captivity, it was difficult to handrear the cub. The Sivasagar Divisional Officer finally decided to send the cub to CWRC.

The animal was brought to CWRC on December 30. All these days the cub had been housed in an enclosure of 3 feet by 3 feet where it hardly had any space to move around. The dull coat colour and the lack of coordination of the hind limbs clearly suggested dietary deficiency and a long period of confinement in a restricted environment.

At CWRC, the leopard cub is being subjected to treatment and care. Since CWRC is not a lifetime care facility, the animal has no rehabilitation possibility and is being cared for mainly on welfare grounds. Its health has improved over the last three weeks and soon the forest department will be intimated about transferring it to a lifetime care facility. The Centre Manager has intimated the Sivasagar Divisional Forest Officer formally.

On January 5, villagers captured a trouble-making jungle cat (Felis chaus), which used to devour their poultry at Numoligor under Kumargaon police station under Bokakhat Wildlife Division. They contacted officials at Bokakhat who immediately sent forest guards to bring the animal to their headquarters. The cat suffered minor injuries on its face while it was being captured.

The forest department, in turn, contacted CWRC for treatment and possible release of the cat back to the jungle. The cat was chemically immobilised for close inspection for possible traumatic injuries. It was treated for the minor injuries and was considered fit to be released on January 7. The cat was released at Panbari Reserve Forest, a habitat similar to that found in Numoligor, only 5 km from the place of capture. This was done with the necessary consent of the forest department and in the presence of the assistant conservator of forests, Mr Aniruddha Dey.