New information on what caused deaths of two endangered spotted owls in B.C.

Details are emerging on what may have caused the deaths of two endangered northern spotted owls that were released into the wild.

More information has come to light about the deaths of two endangered northern spotted owls released into the wild last year.

According to the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, the two male owls were moved to an aviary in a protected forest in the Fraser Valley last June and subsequently released into the wild.

In a statement, the ministry said that a necropsy on one of the owls found that “he was emaciated, and his diminished condition was severe enough to cause death.”

The statement indicates it’s likely the other owl “succumbed to a predator.”

The latest deaths mean that six spotted owls raised in captivity and then released from a conservation breeding program in Langley have died.

But the Wilderness Committee holds out hope that the program’s biologists will continue their work and eventually have success.

“This has never been done in the world before,” the Wilderness Committee’s Joe Foy said of the Langley program.

“(The biologists) are working very hard to make this happen. And this final step, figuring out how to allow the released captive owls to survive in the forest, is a tough one. And so far, they have not succeeded. But we need them to succeed,” he said.

Foy said at last count, there was only one known wild-born spotted owl left in B.C. although it’s possible there are others.

He said there used to be 500 breeding pairs, but industrial logging damaged habitat.

The provincial Northern Spotted Owl Breeding and Release Program was established in 2007.

“The long-term goal is to expand the spotted owl program and release as many as 20 spotted owls into the wild each year,” the ministry statement reads.

The other owls released through the program died from causes believed to include injury, predation, disease and starvation.