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.

Dakota’s Rescue

Because of Dakota's unique situation, calls were put to neighbors and friends who would be the most likely to have seen Dakota in those early hours after his disappearance. We wanted to be sure that they were aware of the situation because he would begin to approach people when he began feeling sick     

On Sunday morning, November 13, 2011 staff came into the Wildlife In Need Center to find our beloved and much valued Great Horned Owl educational ambassador, Dakota, gone. While it was obvious the enclosure he calls home was damaged, it was unclear why it had occurred, or where he could possibly be. Once it was discovered that Dakota had escaped and was missing in the woods not far from the Center, search parties began looking and did not stop looking until three and a half weeks later when Dakota was finally rescued by staff.

In order to understand how to even approach rescuing Dakota you have to know and consider his history. Dakota is a fully-flighted imprinted owl with no physical injures. He was never trained to fly to a glove like you see at raptor shows or the zoo, because Dakota would sit on his perch and let his handlers walk right up to him and just step up onto the glove. He wanted that human interaction and therefore did not need to be trained to fly to a glove.

He has never had to hunt for food for himself. Although Dakota has all the equipment he would need to hunt, he has no clue how to use it! For this reason staff and volunteers at the center knew it would take some time for Dakota to become somewhat debilitated and hungry at which point he would begin looking to humans for help.

Throughout Dakota’s rescue help was offered in many forms from hundreds of people. This included things like tree climbing equipment, darting equipment, raptor traps and manpower. As thoughtful as these offers to help were, staff had to keep in mind the safety of the humans and owl involved.

Although it is often people’s first inclination to climb a tree to catch a bird, that would not have worked for Dakota. Flighted birds will rarely stay in a tree while you climb it. Once the bird takes off you would then be left out of position to act further. Enlisting the help of a professional tree climber would not have helped, because Dakota would not have been familiar with that person and the probability that he would have let a stranger approach is slim.

Suggestions of darting Dakota were not pursued because drug darting is primarily used on large mammals. To use such a tool on a bird up in a tree could have caused severe damage or even death. Darts involve a syringe with a charge. Once that dart hits its target a charge goes off releasing the drug into the animal’s system. If the charge of the dart didn’t kill Dakota, the fall from 40 feet in a tree would have.

Staff did attempt to use a raptor trap on Dakota, but he never came down to feed on our bait stations. We are unsure of the reason behind this other than the simple fact that he was too afraid to do so.

In order to rescue Dakota, staff and volunteers at the Wildlife In Need Center needed everyone to know that he was missing and that he would begin to approach people when he began feeling sick. The center informed the surrounding areas of where Dakota was to call the center immediately if they saw an owl flying low or approaching people. The public was advised NOT to approach him themselves as it could easily result in injury to that person or Dakota.

As an ambassador for the Wildlife In Need Center, Dakota has educated over 80,000 people in person in the last decade.  Great Horned Owls can live into their 30's in captivity so he intends to educate many more!

Every day for three and a half weeks dedicated staff and volunteers went out multiple times a day searching for Dakota. We went out looking to make sure we kept our eyes in him to know where he was and make sure he was still alive. We went eleven straight days without hearing or seeing him, those days were the hardest.

On December 5^th we received a call that people were hearing an owl hooting near their homes around 5:00PM. Staff responded to the call and ended up seeing Dakota, jesses and all. He was alive! To keep Dakota safe staff kept the news to themselves in order to ensure a safe recovery. Dakota was flying low and hooting constantly, interacting with his caretakers. We knew it wouldn’t be long before we brought him home. At 5:45AM on the morning of December 7^th staff was already on their way to this same site when they got a call that an owl was seen sitting on someone’s side deck. When wildlife rehabilitators, Mandy Feavel and Chelsea Matson arrived, Dakota was still sitting there! With flashlights and a net in tow they went to work to safely bring Dakota home. It took over an hour for Dakota to finally settle on a stoop a short enough distance from the ground to allow them to safely approach. He was sitting on the porch railing calling in distress. Mandy approached Dakota in the same way he would be approached in preparing for a program. This included talking to him and walking calmly and slowly. Dakota allowed Mandy to walk right up to him. Once she was within inches of him, she waited until he slowly closed hid eyes and grabbed both legs in the way rehabilitators are trained to handle raptors like him. “I have him!” she exclaimed to Chelsea and she yelled back, “I’ll get the car!” At last, Dakota was safe. However, Dakota had been on his own for three and a half weeks, staff wasn’t sure what condition he was going to be in.

Dakota’s Recovery

After three and a half weeks, the first thing Dakota wanted to do upon returning home was to take a safe, warm nap surrounded by familiar faces and voices.

He was brought back to the center immediately where staff did an initial exam discovering Dakota had lost close to 30% of his body weight and was severely dehydrated. His mouth and skin were pale and dry. Once safely in a small enclosure in our Intensive Care Unit with his closest handlers nearby, he fell asleep from exhaustion. He was home, but not yet “out of the woods.”

Starvation is an injury we see all too frequently, all year long. Sadly, if a raptor is severely emaciated and dehydrated its body may have already shut down and be past the point of recovery. It is most common for young raptors to have difficulty finding food their first winter even without debilitating injuries. When an animal’s body is deprived of food it begins by consuming its stores of fat. After the fat stores are all used up, muscle begins to deteriorate and soon thereafter their vital organs will shut down. Once the organs begin to slow down they can not process food and calories like they normally would. For this reason patients that come to us emaciated, like Dakota, are given only fluids for the first several days to encourage healthy recovery of those organs. However, as mentioned before, sometimes a patient comes to us too late. Their body and organs are past the point of recovering and they may not make it their first night at our clinic or pass after just a couple of days later. This fear was a reality for Dakota. For the first week of Dakota’s recovery he was monitored through the night by the dedicated staff at the center to make sure he would make it through his body’s toughest battle yet. His vet made it clear to staff that even with the best of care, any of his first few days back could be his last.

Dakota's Continued Recovery

Dakota's veterinarian, Dr. Waliszewski, went out of her way to complete his exams on site due to his extremely debilitated state.

Beginning the morning Dakota returned and through the first week after, Dakota received subcutaneous fluids twice a day along with a general antibiotic.

Beginning on his forth day of recovery Dakota began getting fluids orally to introduce calories slowly into his system so we could avoid putting his body into shock. Once Dakota was stable enough, solid foods were slowly introduced. He was thrilled!

Dakota's first pellets were an absolute joy for the staff and volunteers working with him! To find out why and more about pellets visit our blog post on pellets

Blood work was done multiple times throughout his recovery to monitor his health and recovery. His initial results showed that his kidney and liver levels were both elevated, proving his body’s debilitated state. With fluid administration staff was able to improve his blood values over time and slowly bring Dakota back to full physical health. Dakota had a lot of body weight to gain and did not reach his normal body weight until January 6^th, nearly a month after he was rescued. Once he reached his normal weight he was given the “ok” by his veterinarian to be moved into an indoor aviary to allow Dakota to move around more. From there, Dakota began moving outside during the day for enrichment, soaking up the sun and watching the outdoor environment around him. He has continued to come back into his indoor aviary at night.

After several weeks of around the clock care, Dakota was improved enough to show his face to the public and thank them for all of their caring and support.

It has been a slow process, but Dakota’s physical state has made a complete recovery. Dakota has been anxiously waiting to be able to say thank you in person for all the support he and his caregivers received during his whole ordeal. His first official reintroduction to the educational ambassador team at the Wildlife In Need Center happened March 3^rd at the UW-Waukesha theatre. We couldn’t have gotten through the tough times without that support. Thank you.