Rehabilitated barn owl reunited with caretaker on St Helena Island

A rehabilitated barn owl used for educating the public about wildlife has been reunited with its caretaker about a week after it went missing on St. Helena Island.

The owl escaped in the Coffin Point area on May 25, with flight training equipment still attached to its legs, according to Beaufort County Animal Services. On Tuesday afternoon, someone noticed an owl trapped in a tree on County Shed Road in Burton and called the shelter, which retrieved the bird and brought it to Port Royal Animal Hospital.

The owl was doing well, according to the animal hospital, and has been returned to a local federally-permitted wildlife rehabilitation specialist. "We were all really excited and stunned to see this beautiful creature up close, and happy that the owl is just fine," the animal hospital wrote on Facebook.