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News
March 3, 2008
Owlspot creator, Paul Muriithi has just received an international
award for his conservation work with Mackinder’s eagle owls.
He received an award of Special Achievement as part of the Owl Hall
of Fame (see www.globalowlproject.com) at the recent Festival of Owls
held in Minnesota, USA. We are delighted Paul’s tireless efforts
to conserve owls and educate farmers have been recognized by the world’s
leading group of owl researchers and conservationists. Below is the
press release for his award.
Kenyan Inducted Into World Owl Hall of Fame
HOUSTON, Minn. — Although not able to receive his award in person,
Paul Muriithi Kibuthu of Mweiga , Kenya was inducted into the World
Owl Hall of Fame on February 29, 2008, in Houston , Minnesota , USA
as part of the International Festival of Owls. Five other people and
one owl from five countries on three continents found their place
in the hall of fame alongside Paul.
The World Owl Hall of Fame was hatched in 2006 to bring public recognition
to the humans and owls who have dedicated a significant portion of
their lives to making this world a better place for owls. The Champion
of Owls Award is granted to a human and the Lady Gray’l Award,
named for a great gray owl from Winnipeg , Canada , is bestowed upon
an owl.
Due to the strong suite of nominations for the Champion of Owls Award,
the Global Owl Project is sponsoring a new Special Achievement Award
for humans within the hall of fame for the first time this year. “Developing
a Special Achievement Award category was not only necessary, it was
easy. Just look what the five 2008 award winners have done,”
comments David H. Johnson, Director of the Global Owl Project.
Paul Muriithi Kibuthu received a Special Achievement Award for going
against the grain to bring hope for the Mackinder’s Eagle Owl.
Despite growing up in a culture where owls are stoned to death as
harbingers of death, Paul became interested in protecting owls through
his involvement in the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya in school. He later
observed owls while he farmed his land, learning their behaviors and
eating habits firsthand.
In 1997 Paul came upon an innovative idea after a group of foreign
tourists inquired about where they could view a Mackinder’s
Eagle Owl. He pinpointed the whereabouts of all the local pairs and
put up a sign along the road for tourists advertising his owl guiding
service. He divided his guiding income with the farmers whose land
surrounded the owl territories he was visiting. With a financial incentive
and the knowledge that owls were helping to protect their crops by
eating rodents, local attitudes towards owls began to change to one
of protecting the owls instead of stoning them.
Paul has gone on to become a member of the Mackinder’s Eagle
Owl project, studying the effects of land use practices and culture
on owl conservation. He also promotes owl conservation in national
newspapers and radio, and his work was even featured on BBC radio.
Mozart the Eurasian Eagle Owl was the recipient of the 2008 Lady Gray’l
Award. He has appeared in a video and several films on owls, as well
as “worked” at the National Birds of Prey Centre in England
for most of his life, touching the lives of over a million people.
He was the forerunner of trained owls in the United Kingdom and successfully
tried out a new treatment for a yeast infection of the eye. He also
patiently allowed scores of blind people to “see” an owl
with their hands, which is not something many owls tolerate well.
Since he was raised by humans and considers himself to be one, he
often courts his adoring public. Dr. Melissa Hughes of the College
of Charleston in South Carolina says of Mozart during his few-years’
stay in the United States , “My students were always quite pleased
when he favored them with an offer of a dead rat.”
The winner of the prestigious Champion of Owls Award was coincidentally
the International Festival of Owls’ keynote speaker, Dr. C.
Stuart Houston from Saskatoon . Houston has banded more than 10,000
owls of 11 species since 1943, published 51 papers on owls, written
reviews for six owl books, and inspired multiple generations of ornithologists,
despite being a medical doctor himself.
“He always involved other people in his work, from farm lads
to grown people,” says Dr. Robert Nero of Winnipeg , a Champion
of Owls award winner himself and keeper of Lady Gray’l during
her lifetime. “[His wife] Mary Houston is right up there with
Stuart. They are a team.”
Houston’s Champion of Owls Award will join a long list of other
awards on his curriculum vitae, including awards from the American
Ornithologists’ Union, Canadian Nature Federation, Raptor Research
Foundation, and being named an Officer of the Order of Canada , among
others.
Special Achievement Awards were presented to the following individuals
in addition to Paul:
? Richard Clark, Ph.D. ( USA ) served as the senior advisor for the
Working Bibliography of Owls of the World, which compiled 6,590 scientific
citations and required 11 staff years of effort. He also served as
editor of the 1987 Northern Forest Owl Symposium proceedings and has
published numerous scientific papers on owls.
? Johan de Jong (The Netherlands) has led the Dutch Barn Owl Working
Group since its inception in 1986. The group has successfully restored
the country’s Barn Owl population, with de Jong personally banding
more than 10,000 owls. He also chaired the World Owl Conference planning
committee in 2007 and created the annual Dutch National Owl Day.
? Deane Lewis ( Australia ) found a shortage of owl information on
the internet in 1997 when he was researching them for an enormous
tattoo to go on his back. He went on to develop www.owlpages.com,
the world’s mecca of owl information, visited by over 3,000
people from school children to biologists every day.
? Jemima Parry-Jones MBE (England) has published two books and a video
on her pioneering techniques for training and care of captive owls
and has reached over a million people with her education efforts (which
include Mozart, the Lady Gray’l Award winner.) She also helped
to develop and enforce captive-care regulations in England .
The 2008 World Owl Hall of Fame is sponsored by the World Owl Trust,
Global Owl Project, Center for Biological Diversity, Owl Research
Institute, Raptor Education Group, Inc., Hancock House Publishers,
Gray Owl Fund, and owlstuff.com.
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