A belated Christmas miracle. That is how you can call the discovery of a missing snowy owl in Berlicum. The animal escaped a few weeks ago at Amersfoort Zoo. When he had not been found a few days later, the caretakers feared the worst. The tame owl must have been dead. But now the bird turned up in Brabant.
“We received a call from people who had seen him,” says Ans van Kollenburg of the Animal Ambulance Den Bosch. “They said on Thursday that he had already eaten a goose and two ducks. They caught him and called us.”
The origin of the tame owl, the species is known from the Harry Potter films, was traced to the zoo in Amersfoort after some research. It is roughly 55 kilometers from Berlicum as the crow flies. “A caretaker is coming to get the snowy owl tonight. They were really surprised that it had ended up here and was still alive,” says Van Kollenburg.
A spokesperson for the zoo confirms this. “The snowy owl does not live in our country. He escaped when he was shocked by an action in the animal enclosure. The first days were fully searched, then we thought the owl was dead. Maybe it made a stop somewhere on the way to Berlicum. We are in any case very happy that he has been found again. A small miracle.”