“We should remember in our dealings with animals that they are a sacred trust to us…[They] cannot speak for themselves.”—Harriet Beecher Stowe–
Outreach Program to Schools and Community Groups
A new education program to serve our schools and communities.
�
“Our Connections to Nature”, our new outreach program, is designed to support classroom teachers & their students studying Science, Life Sciences & Biology. ‘Connections’ focuses on explaining our Relationship with Nature, the Conservation of B.C.’s Wildlife & their Habitats, and our connections that can help us understand how to protect B.C.’s Biosystems and our own environment today and into the future.
Our Outreach Program is offered in five classroom modules/lessons plus one optional field trip experience, and can be customized for you and your school-class in several different formats. Please ask us how we can customize this program for you.
Thank you for your interest,
Olivia Stanley, Visitor & Outreach services.
Diane Wallace, Educational Tours and Outreach
Mountain View Conservation & Breeding Centre Society
23898, Rawlison Crescent
Langley B.C. V1M 3R6
Tel: 604-882-9313
e-mail: visit@mtnviewconservation.org
www.mtnviewconservation.org
Mountain View has been operating “Breed & Return” wildlife conservation programs for more than 27 years. Please visit our website for more information and “Do your part – Help us save our wildlife by Adopting a Northern Spotted Owl today”
=====================================================
A Successful Hatching and Incubation of a Northern Spotted Owl
METRO VANCOUVER — A captive pair of northern spotted owls has successfully given birth to a male owlet — for the first time with help from an artificial incubator.
The human-assisted birth offers a flicker of hope for the endangered owls, which have suffered over the years from habitat loss and fragmentation due to logging of old-growth forests.
Just 13 Northern Spotted Owls are in a special captive breeding and return program at the Mountain View Conservation and Breeding Centre, in the Township of Langley, plus an estimated 10 in the wild in southwestern B.C., down from estimates of 500 pairs before European settlement.
After two years without a single birth in the captive-breeding program, the B.C. Ministry of Natural Resources and Mountain View Conservation conducted an experiment this spring by taking three eggs from different breeding females about a week after they were laid and placed them in an incubator.
One of the eggs resulted in the successful birth of a male owlet, which was hand-fed tiny portions of mice for 10 days before being returned to his mother. The other two hatched out, but neither survived.
The mother of the successful hatch originally laid two eggs, one of which did not succeed. She went on to produce a second batch of eggs, known as double-clutching.
“To our surprise, she produced four eggs,” Ian Blackburn, the province’s spotted owl recovery coordinator, said in an interview. “We were quite excited by that.”
The second batch of eggs failed because of bacterial infection.
In total, five breeding female owls at Mountain View produced a total of six fertile and four infertile eggs this spring — but just the one successful birth.
Blackburn said that incubation will be expanded in 2013 to help boost the number of owls in the program and pave the way for the eventual release of owls back into the wild.
“The idea is to optimize the production and survivability of the captive population,” he said. “Artificial incubation seems to provide the greatest success.”
As part of the program, officials are also removing a number of barred owls, which compete for prey and territory, in areas where spotted owls are known to live in the wild, including the Fraser Canyon, Hope-Skagit area, and Stein Valley.
The province’s policy is also to capture juvenile spotted owls in the wild and incorporate them into the captive-breeding program.
In a North American first, two pairs of northern spotted owls successfully hatched young at Mountain View in 2009 and 2008.
Joe Foy of the Wilderness Committee called for an immediate end to cutting of old-growth forests in spotted owl areas, noting that logging continues even in officially designated “wildlife habitat areas” such as near the entrance to Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park.
“The good-hearted hard-working biologists are free to do their work away from the forests, as long as they don’t get in the way of the chainsaws,” he said. “It makes you wonder, if they’re successful in breeding these owls, where will they live?”
(Quoted from an article in the Vancouver Sun)
lpynn@vancouversun.com
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
May 12th is International Migratory Bird Day.
Celebrate migratory birds by supporting our Canadian Sandhill Crane Program
- Adopt a Sandhill Crane for $50.00 (one year)
B.C. Schools ‘Conservation of the Environment’ Outreach Program
- is now booking. Mountain View is now accepting registrations for our new schools outreach program available for delivery April 2013 through to June 2014.
“Our Connections to Nature” is our new outreach program designed to support Classroom Teachers & their Students studying Science, Life Sciences & Biology. ‘Connections’ focuses on the conservation of B.C.’s wildlife & their habitats, and the connections that can help us protect our own environment and our habitat.
The program is available in several formats delivered in the classroom plus one optional educational field trip experience to Mountain View Conservation.
Please email visit@mtnviewconservation.org or call us at 604.882.9313 for more details.
Our Visitor Centre welcomes 2013 B.C. Schools Field Trips, Community Groups and Seniors - reserve your 2-hour Guided Tours now.
Online reservations please click here.
Schools & College field trip teachers are invited to book their class outings online now. Enjoy a fascinating two hour presentation about wildlife conservation programs at Mountain View that are saving our wildlife species from extinction, and take a tram tour around part of our 300+acre Wildlife Conservatory to see the wildlife conservation breeding habitats of the Vancouver Island Marmots and Northern Spotted Owls.
K-12 Student & Community Groups of 10 or more get a student special discount of 50% off! Regular price is $20.00 Discounted to $10.00 for students/youth. Call 604.882.9313 ,email us at visit@mtnviewconservation.org to reserve your tour today!
Online reservations please click here.
OWL CAM is launched! Adopt an Owl to help us operate the Program
Our plans are to install twelve cameras in the flyway and in the aviaries.
However, the owls are in their egg-laying season so we will not be installing those cameras until late summertime. In the meantime, you can logon to see a pair of owls that are in the main barn. (Presently there is not enough room for them out at the aviary, and it gives us a chance to test our Owl Cam system)
Click – OWL CAM ONLINE
Or type http://70.69.166.58 into your Internet browser address bar.
enter User= Guest
and Password= Guest
then click “login” and you will see a pair of our Northern Spotted Owls in the main barn facility. More cameras will be installed in the main forest facility this summer.
Owl Observer Team:
Join our team and report on any unusual Owl behaviour during the day.
email us at visit@mtnviewconservation.org and thank you for your financial support.
They rarely move during the day; but they are very active at night. You may be lucky enough to see the female jumping into her nest!
Positions Available
Internship Positions Available -
Summer/Fall 2013
| Animal Care Internship | |
Mountain View Conservation Centre, located just outside Fort Langley, British Columbia, has a position open in our Animal Care Internship Program. Successful candidates will assist our Keepers in the care and maintenance programs connected with various species of rare & endangered animals, assisting with daily food preparation, habitat and facility cleaning, maintenance and grounds keeping, animal behavioral observation and breeding programs. The benefits of our Internship Program is to gain hands-on experience with endangered animals in a very specialized field of work, resulting in a reference letter and completion certificate, awarded at the end of the Internship. This is an unpaid position requiring a commitment of five 8-hour days per week for 4-6 months in the summer and fall terms of March through to December 2013. Interns must be prepared to work variable shifts including weekends and holidays, depending on scheduling. Bunkhouse style residence rooms in a shared facility on-site is provided free of charge for live-in Interns. Interns choosing to live off-site must have their own transportation to the farm which is not directly connected to public transit. Applicants should be College or University graduates or current students in a related field, such as Biology, Zoology, Animal Sciences, Wildlife Conservation, Environmental Sciences, etc. and have a strong desire to attain a career in conservation and animal care in the future. Applicants must be physically fit; able to work a full, sometimes strenuous, 8 hour day in all weather conditions, and be able to lift up to 40 pounds. Applicants should apply by email with a covering letter, resume, 2 reference letters or 3 reference contacts. Previous animal care or wildlife conservation program experience is a requirement. For more information about the Mountain View Conservation and Breeding Centre Society please visit our website at www.mtnviewconservation.org or email us at visit@mtnviewconservation.org |
|
Please Note:
Thank you for applying but only those best suited to a position will be contacted back for an interview.
Help us with our programs:
Click here to Donate: Adopt a Northern Spotted Owl
Or, you can click on the Canada Helps logo below and donate securely online.
All donations will receive a tax credit receipt, and you can gift the adoption to your family and friends. Please visit the Owls online and adopt or donate $50.00 to help us with the operating costs of this critically endangered Wildlife Conservation Program.
It wouldn’t be possible for Mountain View Conservation to continue its programs without your donations! Please continue to support this extremely important work.
You can help! Click the Canada Helps logo and donate securely online. Thank you.
