The young environment committee from Rivonia Primary School was excited to welcome two barn owls to their school.
The school has had owl boxes on its premises for the past four years which have been home to both barn owls and spotted eagle owls. The two barn owls, who were orphaned and cared for at the Sandton SPCA, will now call the owl box at Rivonia Primary home until they decide to fly off.
The environment committee, which is made up of about 15 eager learners, were present at the release of the two young owls into the owl box and helped ring the owls so that they can be tracked in the future.
Delina Chipape, a project coordinator with the Owl Project, explained that the rings are used for conservation efforts to establish where they were ringed, how old they are and how far they have travelled.
The Owl Project is a non-profit organisation which focuses on educating people about owls as well as running an owl release programme.
Candice Martin, a teacher at the school who heads up the environment committee, explained that the owl box project is just one of the many projects the learners are involved in. “It’s really about teaching our kids how to be more conscious of their environment.
“It’s amazing for not only our children but for our ground staff as well to get involved and see the projects that we’re involved with… the kids really do love that it is here and being able to see them up close and feed them.
The environment committee will be responsible for feeding the chicks for the next month until which time they will be old enough to hunt on their own.
Martin added that as the learners are constantly changing and growing they like to focus on a variety of projects. The learners have also worked with the Owl Rescue Centre to collect plastic to make owl boxes and have made their own eco-bricks, which are plastic bottles that are filled and used for building and started a recycling project at school.
“We want to make this fun for them so that they want to continue helping their environment and we want to create adults that are eco-friendly,” concluded Martin.
Chipape encouraged anyone from a school to get in contact with the Owl Project if they would like to know more details about the owl release programme.
Details: Owl Project 011 791 7326; info@owlproject.org
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