San Diego Zoo Reports Theft of Rare African Milky Eagle Owl

A rare African owl was stolen from its cage at the San Diego Zoo over the weekend in an apparently well-planned heist that has left its mate disoriented and zoo officials angered.

A female African milky eagle owl and its male companion were discovered missing from their cage about 6 a.m. Saturday by a behavioral observer on his way to another exhibit, according to Jeff Jouett, zoo spokesman. A two-foot square had been cut into the owls’ wire enclosure. Three strands of a barbed-wire fence surrounding the zoo had also been cut, Jouett said.

‘Very Methodical’

“We only know that the person who took these birds knew what they were after,” Jouett said. “They were very methodical.”

The male owl was spotted and recovered just before 7 a.m. in a tree near the enclosure but the female was still missing late Monday. The owls, the only such birds on exhibit at the zoo, were in the captive breeding program.

The female is worth about $2,000 but “far exceeds that in value to the zoo,” Jouett said. “The pair had just bonded and were mating. They don’t necessarily mate for life, but it will definitely (affect) him.”

The male owl was hosed down in the tree so he could not fly and then was netted, Jouett said. “He was somewhat disoriented and was placed in quarantine,” he said.

Rare in Captivity

San Diego police are investigating. The thieves are believed to have gained entrance over the barbed-wire fence between midnight and 6 a.m. Zoo security guards checked on the birds at midnight and again at 2:30 a.m. but would not have seen the cut portion of the wire cage because it was obscured by a tree, Jouett said.

The African owl is not on the endangered species list but it is extremely rare in captivity, Jouett said. The Dallas Zoo and the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, S.C., are the only other zoos in the United States that have the birds.

The owls are light brown with a black circle around their faces and have distinctive pink eyelids.