Rare bird (From Barry And District News)

Rare bird

Thieves who snatched four birds of prey from Barry Hawking Centre in an early morning raid are being hunted by police.

Detectives are appealing for help to track down the burglars who stole two rare Egyptian eagle owls and two Harris hawks from the site on March 6.

Officers later found one of the birds, safe and well, in a Cardiff shed and arrested a man on suspicion of theft and handling stolen goods. He has been released on bail while enquiries continue.

The bird's mate also taken from the centre was returned after a member of the public found children playing with it in the Ely area of Cardiff.

Both these Egyptian owls were later reunited with their week-old chick.

Welsh Hawking Centre owner Ceri Griffiths said: "It is such a relief to have at least two of the birds back. It's a good way for this to have ended."

He added: "The Egyptian eagle owls are very rare. As a breeding pair I would say they are priceless. When they were stolen the female was on eggs and had just hatched a chick.

"The chick was more dead than alive when we discovered they had been taken.

"We brought her back to life using a heat lamp and force fed her. We have used an incubator to keep her going."

Mr Griffiths' wife, Norma, added: "We had to hand-rear the chick while the female was away.

"Because the chick was already feeding off its parents, it thinks it's an owl and it did not really want to take food from a human.

"If it had got so tame that it started readily taking food from me, it may never have gone back in with its parents.

"We plan to leave the mother and father together for a day and then reintroduce the chick. This has been a very traumatic experience for the mother."

PC Mark Goulding, police wildlife officer for the Vale, confirmed that the owls had been reunited but that the two Harris hawks were still missing.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Barry Police on (01446) 734451.