Black barn owl is one in a million
I never know that there are black barn owl… it look nice…
This young barn owl is one in a million after being born with a rare genetic condition that has made her feathers jet black.
Sable, who is two years old, suffers from melanism, a 100,000-to-one gene mutation that makes her the exact opposite to an albino.
Dark-hued owls are normally killed at birth by their confused mothers but Sable was born in captivity and so she survived, meaning she is one of only three in existence in Britain.
However, her unusual colouring means she would die if released into the wild. Baroness Sasa Vonbarth und Kippenruer, who runs the Hereford Owl Rescue, described Sable as “peculiar” but “very beautiful”.
She said: “Sable is very peculiar or I suppose you could say a freak of nature because melanistic owls are usually killed at birth or chucked out of the nest by their mothers.
“The parents think that because a chick is not white they shouldn’t feed it. However, she is captive bred as were her parents so she survived.
“Strangely Sable is much stronger than a normal barn owl whereas an albino is much weaker and has a very bad immune system.
“However, if she got out into the wild she’d be dead within 12 hours. You would think black would work at night but in reality she would be mobbed and killed by other owls.”
Unlike albinos, the two-year-old, who is 10in tall and has a wingspan of 30in, is stronger than the average barn owl because of her genetic condition.
She is currently being looked after by the Hereford Owl Sanctuary, a charitable organisation that rescues injured owls before reintroducing them into the wild.
Barn owls had been in decline in Britain but are making a comeback with 8,000 breeding pairs in the wild.
(source of the news is http://www.telegraph.co.uk )