Catch online adventures of owls (From Stroud News and Journal)

Catch online adventures of owls

BIG BROTHER for owls is the latest addictive footage hitting the web.

The Barn Owl Centre in Brockworth, which houses orphaned owls with a foster mother until they are ready for release back into the wild, put the web-cam into the aviary to view the owls.

The aim of the project was to allow the centre to monitor the owls' progress with minimal human contact, so their move back into the wild would be easier.

The first batch of celebrity owls have now been released into the wild, but centre manager, Vincent Jones, said that now the project is up and running they will continue it throughout the year.

He added that he thought the response to the project had been fantastic. "I think Steve Wright talked about it on BBC radio the other day and voted it the web camera of the day," he said.

"It's getting a huge amount of feedback and has gone down really well - it's taken us completely by surprise how popular it has been."

Everything that the centre saw, Internet viewers could also watch from their computers.

Now the owls have been released the centre hopes to continue recording their progress in the wild with video footage.

The barn-owl population is now thought to be on the increase again after suffering a decline in the UK for the last fifty years.

Barn Owls live in rough grassland areas with good supplies of voles and mice.

To find out more about the project or to view the images visit www.barnowl.co.uk.