Centre finally finds friend for lonely orphaned owl

Moorlands Wildlife Centre said Grommit and Gizmo took to one another straight away

A lonely owlet rescued by a wildlife centre in Devon has finally found a friend.

Moorlands Wildlife Centre said the tawny owl, named Gizmo, was found orphaned in Branscombe Woods and taken to the rescue centre via Sidmouth Vets on the 28 May.

Gizmo was becoming lonely and too used to human interaction, so the centre put a call out to the Devon Wildlife Rescue group, vets and the Barn Owl Trust in Ashburton to find an owl of a similar age to pair her with.

Tony Bennet, from Moorlands Wildlife Centre, said they managed to pair Gizmo with a fellow orphaned tawny owl named Grommit which was found abandoned on a road in Exmouth.

Moorlands Wildlife Centre has been caring for the tawny owl since it was found orphaned at Branscombe Woods

Mr Bennet said the small bird looked like a "fluffy toy" when it arrived at the rescue centre and was progressing nicely under their care.

"We fed her and looked after her very carefully," he said.

"She didn't have to be enclosed much as she wasn't very mobile but within a week's time, she had almost doubled in size.

"They do bond very quickly with humans and they begin to think they are humans, or they will go to humans for food and won't bother looking for food.

"Whereas if they are with another owl, they will behave as if they are in the wild.

"When we just had Gizmo, for company, we put a mirror in her cage and she used to sit and talk to the mirror, like a parrot, but obviously she wasn't getting a lot of feedback, so she is behaving a lot more naturally now."

'They make a cute little couple of owlets'

Mr Bennet said introducing the pair could have "easily gone wrong" but they took to one another straight away.

"They make a cute little couple of owlets," he said.

It is hoped the owls will be released together from the Moorlands Wildlife Centre in September if they can raise money to build a bigger enclosure.

He said: "We will be putting out food for them on a regular basis until they can learn how to forage themselves in the wild and hopefully add to the local population of tawny owls."

The centre, which is run solely by Mr Bennet and his wife Claire, officially opened in December 2024 and has helped about 200 wild animals including hedgehogs, beavers, fox cubs and birds.

"As an organisation we don't have any animals that are not able to be released back into the wild, we are not a zoo or a visitor centre," he said.