Another Spotted Wood Owl (Strix seloputo) was turned over to the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), the second of its species to be surrendered to the environmental authorities just this week.
Margie Castulo, a resident of Barangay Princess Urduja in Narra town who found the endangered owl, said in a phone interview Wednesday morning that no apparent injury was found on the wild bird but it was “on a weak state”.
“We found it at the back of the rice mill. It was my first time to see it in person and I know it is endangered [owl] so it has to be turned over,” Castulo said in Filipino.
The responders from the Wildlife Traffic Monitoring Unit (WTMU) of PCSD picked up the Spotted Wood Owl on Tuesday afternoon and transported it to the Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Center (PWRCC) in Barangay Irawan, Puerto Princesa City so it can be “nurtured back to health”.
The owl has a length of 40 centimeters from beak to tail, a wingspan of 90 centimeters, and weighed more or less 1.3 kilograms.
The Spotted Wood owl is categorized as an “endangered species” under under PCSD Resolution No. 15-521. It is also protected under the Republic Act (RA) No. 9147, or the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act.
On July 4, Mylene T. Ledesma, an alumnae of Western Philippine University (WPU) and a resident of Barangay Ramon Magsaysay in Aborlan town, also surrendered to the PCSD staff a wounded Spotted Wood Owl that “seemed weak and was not able to fly nor move away from its position”.
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