Young owls in Calgary at risk of 'unethical' photography practices

Amir Said · CBC News

· Posted: May 04, 2025 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

Owls tin beryllium beauteous casual to find successful Calgary. Their impeccable camouflage, perfected implicit the people of millions of years of evolution, isn't precise effectual erstwhile the histrion they're successful is surrounded by dozens of photographers.

In a fashionable Calgary park, longtime birdwatcher and wildlife lensman Jean Wallace recovered herself successful the beingness of a household of large horned owls. That sounds similar a magical infinitesimal with nature, but Wallace was acrophobic astir the actions of different photographers.

"They were lone astir 5 feet from the owl histrion and started hooting astatine them," she said. "Another pistillate past pulled retired her telephone [and played] a signaling of a parent large horned owl calling its young."

Their attempts to instrumentality the owlets into looking astatine them, coupled with immoderate trespassing beyond parkland boundaries to get the close shot, compelled Wallace to archer the photographers they were acting unethically, to nary avail.

"They just shrugged and went connected taking pictures," she said. "I conscionable walked away. I wasn't going to face 8 radical by myself successful the woods."

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Wallace took to societal media to dependable her concerns, affirming long-standing issues successful the birdwatching assemblage astir ethical owl photography. Some fashionable wildlife groups connected platforms similar Facebook person taken steps to trim unethical photography practices, including preventing members from publically sharing animals' locations oregon posting photos of vertebrate nesting sites. Some pages person adjacent banned owl photos wholly owed to the attraction owls pull successful particular.

Birders are ever blessed to spot owls, but a enactment indispensable beryllium drawn betwixt respectful birdwatching and practices that borderline connected harassment of the animals, said Wallace.

"I deliberation that erstwhile you commencement affecting their behaviours, whether they're flying distant from you oregon flying toward you oregon freezing, it's stressful to them," she said. "It besides tin impact whether oregon not they're going to beryllium getting capable food, whether you've interrupted their hunting process, whether oregon not you've interrupted them feeding their young."

Disturbance puts owlets astatine risk

Unethical photography practices tin person dire consequences for nestling and fledgling owls, said Colin Weir, managing manager of the Alberta Birds of Prey Foundation.

"Sometimes the parents tin wantonness a nest, oregon sometimes the parents volition not travel into a nest if determination is disruption going connected nearby, which could beryllium precise detrimental to the nestlings," helium said.

Located east of Lethbridge, the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre is the largest birds of prey installation in Canada. The tract covers 70 acres of wetland and is location to a wide assortment of birds, including galore owl species, for rehabilitation or, if merchandise into the chaotic is not a possibility, arsenic imperishable residents.

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Since 1984, Weir has taken successful and rehabilitated thousands of birds from crossed Alberta.

"Most of the wildlife photographers that I've known oregon seen successful the wild, their archetypal interest is ever the birds and their welfare," said Weir.

"Occasionally, determination are a fewer individuals that sometimes propulsion that envelope a small excessively far, and it leads to a batch of upset some for the idiosyncratic owls, arsenic good arsenic drafting the wrath of birdwatchers, different photographers that are nearby."

While immoderate wildlife photographers whitethorn look to disregard the wellbeing of animals, galore are simply unaware of the ramifications of their actions. Alberta is location to a supportive assemblage of birdwatchers and wildlife photographers, anxious to foster a civilization of ethical practices.

"One happening that birdwatchers and wildlife photographers often similar to bash is chat and speech astir the birds that they are observing," said Weir.

"Those individuals person a passionateness for wildlife, and rather often those individuals are precise consenting to speech to particularly caller radical conscionable to stock their wealthiness of cognition and experience."

Ethical birdwatching

Wallace strives to beforehand coaching novice birdwatchers, arsenic a mode to encourage ethical wildlife photography.

"As a community, we tin assistance thatch radical who are caller to this activity," said Wallace.

"But immoderate radical I don't deliberation volition change. They'll bash what they privation to do,"

Owls intelligibly bespeak erstwhile they're stressed, including by lasting consecutive with their eyes wide unfastened oregon simply flying away. Wildlife photographers request to beryllium liable for observing the galore cues animals springiness erstwhile there's a problem.

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"One of the problems with owls is that galore of them frost arsenic a absorption to stress," she said. "So past you get tons of photos due to the fact that they're frozen … truthful I deliberation it is tricky for radical commencement to larn what those cues are."

To debar interfering with the mundane lives of the owls she photographs, Wallace enjoys taking candid shots of them engaging successful their earthy mundane routines, whether that's preening, feeding oregon sleeping.

'Most of the the radical that I've encountered implicit the years are respectful of the wildlife that they're photographing, and truly don't privation to beryllium stressing them out," she said. "So there's conscionable a tiny number that that mightiness beryllium doing things that I would see harmful for the well-being of the animals."