No birds on the museum’s exhibit are infected, nevertheless, the museum is taking precautions to make sure the birds’s safety.
With cases of the bird flu confirmed within the Ottawa region, the Canadian Museum of Nature is taking precautions to guard the owls it now houses as a part of its everlasting Owls Rendez-Vous exhibit.
In an announcement posted to its Instagram on Friday, April 15, the museum said it will be closing the owl exhibit temporarily because it is making moves to make sure the birds’ safety.
“We now have proactively moved the birds to a secure place as a short lived measure,” the museum said. “We’re working on modifying the bird habitat to make sure the birds’ safety. They may return soon!”
Adding, “The birds’ health is our first priority.”
The year-round Owl Rendez-Vous exhibit opened in July and operates in partnership with Little Ray’s Nature Centre.
Museum visitors can see five live owls — a barn owl, an ideal horned owl, a Eurasian eagle-owl and two snowy owls — and a bald eagle.
The primary case of the avian flu in the realm was confirmed in a Canada goose in Ottawa on April 7.
This was followed by one other case in a Canada goose confirmed by the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit.
Since then, the Eastern Ontario Health Unit (EOHU) confirmed its own case on April 13.
The EOHU didn’t confirm what kind of bird tested positive for the virus.
