Credit: Amnéville-Zoo
On Thursday 28 August 2025, Amnéville Zoo, located over the border in the Grand Est region of France, announced that its teams had recently travelled to Bavaria to take part in a significant conservation event: the reintroduction of 21 Ural owls into their natural habitat.
The zoo said that on 30 July 2025, six French zoological parks, including Amnéville Zoo, entrusted 14 young owls born in captivity to the German conservation organisation VLAB (Verein für Landschaftspflege und Artenschutz in Bayern). After three weeks of acclimatisation in aviaries set up in the Bavarian forests, the birds were released into the wild. Amnéville Zoo noted that its staff were present at the release and described witnessing the first flight of these owls as “a symbolic moment highlighting the core mission of conservation.”
Since the launch of the programme, 132 Ural owls have already been reintroduced. The long-term goal is to rebuild a stable and connected population, reducing the risk of genetic isolation that could lead to local extinction.
Amnéville Zoo stated that its contributions include breeding and transferring young birds for reintroduction programmes, participation in the species committee under the EAZA Ex Situ Programme (EEP), and raising public awareness through the presentation of three breeding pairs at the zoo and dedicated educational activities. In 2025, 22 young owls were transferred to Bavaria (fourteen from French parks) and a further eighteen to Austria for a similar programme.
The zoo will also showcase its conservation efforts during its Bird Conservation Weekend on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 September 2025.
