Stolen away from her family as a hatchling to be a personal pet, the barn owl didn’t appear to have a promising future.

The owl was in the possession of a family in Ohio that had apparently illegally stolen the bird from its family, leaving her with no natural instincts. Francie Krawcke, the raptor program director at the Leslie Nature and Science Center in Ann Arbor, said feathers on the owl’s right wing were cut off, and she suspects the owl had been abused.

The barn owl at the Leslie Science and Nature Center is slowly becoming part of the center's education programs. The owl was stolen from its natural family as a hatchling and abused by previous owners.

Photo courtesy of Linda Chadwick, LSNC

“The daughter of the home she was at told the folks from the raptor center that her and her boyfriend liked to hear the bird scream, so they made it scream,” Krawcke said. “It paints a pretty horrible picture.”

Fortunately for the barn owl — which the Leslie Science and Nature Center hasn't named to emphasize to visitors that it is a wild animal — change and a better life was coming.

After the people who had the bird got into trouble with police, the barn owl went into the possession of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The LSNC had been searching for a barn owl for quite some time and received the bird from the Ohio DNR in February.

The owl has a human imprint, which means it identifies itself more as a human than as an owl, Kwacke said. She said the Ohio DNR attempted to put the owl with other barn owls, only to find she was unnaturally aggressive and didn’t know how to behave.

“We’re building trust and letting her know that she’s in a safe place with safe people,” said Susan Hutton, development director at the LSNC.

Hutton said the center had been looking for a barn owl because the species has been forced out of southeast Michigan due to habitat destruction. The owl has been slowly adapting to her new surroundings and often spends much of her time in the corner of the flighted enclosure.

When the owl is more prepared to trust humans, she will be a part of the center’s education activities, which works to teach kids and adults about animals. She is one of 16 permanently injured, non-releasable birds that live at the center.

“She’s gonna have a busy life,” Kwacke said. “As an imprint, that’s really very important to her to keep her mental health because she does identify more with people. More of that kind of interaction keeps her healthier.”

But it will still be a long process to get to that point.

Kwacke has an enclosure similar to the LSNC’s home for the barn owl at her house in Brooklyn. She took the barn owl to her home to keep a close eye on her and train her for four months after she arrived at the center.

Barn owl at Leslie Science and Nature Center

“She’s much, much calmer and healthier,” she said. “Introducing her to new handlers takes time. To her credit, part of her own disposition and personality is that she’s very curious. She likes new situations, likes to look around and discover new things.”

During the first few months of her time in Kwacke’s care, the owl lunged and shrieked at handlers, Hutton said. During the summer, the center had an intern sit in the owl’s enclosure for a few hours a day to get her acclimated to human presence.

When the owl returned to the LSNC, Hutton said she was shocked at the change in her demeanor.

“The first time I had seen her (with) handlers, I couldn’t believe it was the same bird I had seen before,” she said.

The animals at the center help educate people about the impact humans can have on wild animals and their environments, and instill in them the power to make things better, Hutton said. She said she shows people the center’s bald eagle as a symbol of hope.

“I tell them when we, the teachers, were children, the bald eagle was on the endangered species list and now it’s off,” she said. “I want them to know there are things we can all do.”