Dakota’s History

Dakota’s story begins 11 years ago, back when he was only a couple of weeks old.  He was found on the ground in northern Wisconsin after falling from his nest during a wind storm. Someone with good intentions came upon him and decided to pick up the helpless little creature and bring him home. Unfortunately, they did not know that it was illegal to keep an owl, or any other federally protected bird. Raptors, like Dakota, have incredible eye sight.  When raptors are born however, their eyes are quite undeveloped and do not reach full development until they are several months old. This is a critical stage in a raptor’s life that it needs to be with its parents. Once their eyes have developed they will imprint on the first thing they see. In Dakota’s case it was a female human, not a female Great Horned Owl. Since this woman was the first thing Dakota saw clearly, he assumed that was his mother. He didn't know any better.

A rare archive shot of Dakota during his first year at the Wildlife In Need Center. He still hasn't fully developed his tuft feathers!

While he was small and being kept as a pet the family fed him cat food. Eventually the improper diet made Dakota very sick and he was taken to a veterinarian. The vet informed her that keeping an owl without a permit was a federal offense and Dakota was given to a wildlife rehabilitator for treatment to become healthy again. Dakota cared for and fed small rodents and his physical health slowly returned. Sadly, Dakota was given to the rehabilitator too late and he was already imprinted to humans. This essentially means that Dakota believes he his also a human. He looks to humans for socialization and is completely dependent on humans to feed and clean up after him. At this point the rehabilitator contacted the Wildlife In Need Center to see if we were interested in an educational bird. Even though his imprinting was pretty certain, we still attempted to reverse the imprinting and try to “wild-up” Dakota and see if there was any chance he could still be released and fly free. Once Dakota reached sexual maturity he was put in a large flight enclosure with a female Great Horned Owl. Dakota had no interest. Every time the rehabilitators would come into the enclosure Dakota flew to them. He was brought to an enclosure were his hunting skills could be tested and he would bring the rehabilitators mice as gifts…which is what a male Great Horned Owl should be giving to a female owl during their courtship.

Dakota still seeks out human interaction much the same way he did when young and first brought to the Wildlife In Need Center.

It was official; Dakota was imprinted on humans and could never be released. Dakota’s story begins as a sad one, but has a happy ending. Dakota is now the main educational ambassador at the Wildlife In Need Center. He has educated over 80,000 people in person in his eleven years in hopes that his same sad story will not happen to another owlet.