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National Geographic Kids Chapters: Hoot, Hoot, Hooray!: And More True Stories of Amazing Animal Rescues
Ashlee Brown Blewett
National Kids Geographic
Meet some brave, amazing animals and the caring people who come to their rescue. Filled with engaging photos, fast facts, and fascinating sidebars, readers won't want to put this book down.National Geographic Kids Chapter books pick up where the best-selling National Geographic Readers series leaves off, offering young animal lovers who are ready for short chapters lively, exciting, full-color true stories—just right to carry in backpacks, share with your friends, and read under the covers at night.
Copyright © 2015 National Geographic Society
All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission from the publisher is prohibited.
Staff for This Book
Shelby Alinsky, Project Editor
Jay Sumner, Photo Editor
Callie Broaddus, Art Director
Ruth Ann Thompson, Designer
Marfé Ferguson Delano, Editor
Paige Towler, Editorial Assistant
Sanjida Rashid, Design Production Assistant
Colm McKeveny and Michael Cassady, Rights Clearance Specialists
Grace Hill, Managing Editor
Mike O’Connor, Production Editor
Lewis R. Bassford, Production Manager
George Bounelis, Manager, Production Services
Susan Borke, Legal and Business Affairs
Published by the National Geographic Society
Gary E. Knell, President and CEO
John M. Fahey, Chairman of the Board
Melina Gerosa Bellows, Chief Education Officer
Declan Moore, Chief Media Officer
Hector Sierra, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Book Division
Senior Management Team, Kids Publishing and Media Nancy Laties Feresten, Senior Vice President; Jennifer Emmett, Vice President, Editorial Director, Kids Books; Julie Vosburgh Agnone, Vice President, Editorial Operations; Rachel Buchholz, Editor and Vice President, NG Kids magazine; Michelle Sullivan, Vice President, Kids Digital; Eva Absher-Schantz, Design Director; Jay Sumner, Photo Director; Hannah August, Marketing Director; R. Gary Colbert, Production Director
Digital Anne McCormack, Director; Laura Goertzel, Sara Zeglin, Producers; Jed Winer, Special Projects Assistant; Emma Rigney, Creative Producer; Brian Ford, Video Producer; Bianca Bowman, Assistant Producer; Natalie Jones, Senior Product Manager
The National Geographic Society is one of the world’s largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations. Founded in 1888 to “increase and diffuse geographic knowledge,” the Society’s mission is to inspire people to care about the planet. It reaches more than 400 million people worldwide each month through its official journal, National Geographic, and other magazines; National Geographic Channel; television documentaries; music; radio; films; books; DVDs; maps; exhibitions; live events; school publishing programs; interactive media; and merchandise. National Geographic has funded more than 10,000 scientific research, conservation, and exploration projects and supports an education program promoting geographic literacy.
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Trade paperback
ISBN: 978-1-4263-2054-5
Reinforced library edition
ISBN: 978-1-4263-2055-2
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4263-2200-6
v3.1
Version: 2017-07-10
Cover (#u0f131d2a-f392-5236-bb08-6626563c81e1)
Title Page (#u0ac54965-4bd2-5cc3-8312-5d128becc310)
Copyright (#uff40599f-336b-58d9-951b-5ebfb0b0c723)
PAUL AND BABE: Hoot, Hoot, Hooray! (#u11786d0a-d378-519c-b76a-401bb12794e1)
Chapter 1: Timber! (#u01243ebe-e95d-56fb-9fa4-a7e4e36a4593)
Chapter 2: Raptor Rescue (#ue364cc42-d7e8-5711-81d3-088c96df5a52)
Chapter 3: Hoot, Hoot, Hooray! (#litres_trial_promo)
ZONGOLONI: Operation Elephant Rescue! (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 1: Brave Little Calf (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 2: Learning to Trust (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 3: Wild Again (#litres_trial_promo)
HEAVENLY: Brave Bear! (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 1: Mountaintop Rescue (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 2: Time to Heal (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 3: A Forever Home (#litres_trial_promo)
DON’T MISS! (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 1: Pouch Pet (#litres_trial_promo)
More Information (#litres_trial_promo)
Author’s Note (#litres_trial_promo)
Dedication (#litres_trial_promo)
Credits (#litres_trial_promo)
Acknowledgments (#litres_trial_promo)
Baby owl Paul stands beside his sister, Babe. Eastern screech-owls can be red, like Paul, or gray, like Babe. (photo credit p01.1 (#litres_trial_promo))
When Homer Kuhn found these little baby owls, their eyes were still closed. (photo credit p01.2 (#litres_trial_promo))
May 1, 2013 New Creek, West Virginia, U.S.A.
It was a sunny day, without a cloud in the sky. Birds chirped, squirrels barked, hawks screamed, and a family of deer ate grass near the edge of the woods. Woodcutter Homer Kuhn (sounds like COON) had just finished sawing the base of a dried-out tree.
“Timber!” Homer called.
The tree hit the ground. Thud!
Homer looped a long, heavy chain around the log. His brother, Willie, pulled the log out of the forest using a large machine that looks like a tractor, called a skidder. As the log slid past Homer, a flash of white caught his eye. He thought he saw two snowballs lying on the ground. But Homer knew that they couldn’t be snowballs. It was 80°F (26.5°C) outside.
Homer says, “I thought, what in the world is lying white like that in the middle of the woods?” He walked over to investigate. Lying in the dirt were two baby eastern screech-owls.
Homer scooped up the baby owls, or owlets, in his hand. They looked like two fluffy marshmallows. Peep, peep! the owlets called. They must have fallen out of a hole in the log, Homer thought.
Some birds build nests. Not screech-owls. Instead, they nest inside tree cavities (sounds like KAV-uh-tees). These are holes made by other animals, like woodpeckers. Usually, the mother owl looks after the babies while the father owl hunts for food to bring back to the family.
Homer searched the area for the owlets’ parents. He looked inside the holes of other trees. But he found no parent owls. Homer knew that if he left the owlets in the woods with no home and no parents, they would die. He wrapped the babies in an old T-shirt. Then he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and called the one person he knew would help.
“Hello,” said Mrs. Tammi Kuhn.
“Hi, Mom,” Homer answered. “We have something.”
“Is it squirrels again?” Mrs. Kuhn asked.
“No, we found two baby owls this time,” Homer said.
“Oh my!” said Mrs. Kuhn. “I’ll be right there.”
Mrs. Kuhn was used to getting calls like this from her sons. Homer and Willie work for a logging company. They spend most days in the woods, cutting down trees. Then they sell the logs they collect to a nearby sawmill to be cut into boards and sold as lumber. Sometimes, in the woods, the brothers find baby animals.
Owls live on every continent except Antarctica. They come in many shapes and sizes. The Eurasian (sounds like yur-AY-zhun) eagle-owl can grow to more than two feet (0.6 m) tall. It can weigh up to ten pounds (4.5 kg). The elf owl only grows to around six inches (15 cm) tall. It weighs less than half as much as this book. Owls’ feathers help them blend into their habitats. The snowy owl’s thick white feathers hide it from enemies in the frozen Arctic. And the gray- and rust-colored feathers of a screech-owl make it seem to disappear next to a tree.
Eurasian eagle-owl (photo credit 1.1 (#litres_trial_promo))
“If we find baby squirrels or baby raccoons, we try to rescue them,” Homer says. “We find a lot of squirrels.” When the boys spot these animals, they call their mother for help. “She raises them until they are old enough to care for themselves,” says Homer. Then Mrs. Kuhn returns the animals to the wild.
Mrs. Kuhn has raised and released many squirrels over the years. But screech-owls were different. She had never cared for screech-owls. In fact, it is illegal to raise them in West Virginia. But these babies needed help.
Mrs. Kuhn got in her car and drove to the edge of the woods. “I really didn’t know what to do with baby screech-owls, but I didn’t want them to die,” says Mrs. Kuhn. She called everyone she knew, trying to find a rescue center that could take them. Meanwhile, she drove the owlets back to her house. She put them in a box with a heating pad to keep them warm, and she did her best to feed them.
Did You Know?
There are more than 200 species (sounds like SPEE-sheez), or kinds, of owls.
In the wild, baby screech-owls stay in the nest for about one month. Then they begin to learn how to fly and hunt. After that, the parents continue to protect and feed their young owls for two or three more months, until they can hunt on their own. But the baby owls’ eyes were still closed. They were less than a week old.
Owls are carnivores (sounds like CAR-nuh-vors). They eat meat. The owlets’ parents would have fed the babies insects and small mammals, like mice. All Mrs. Kuhn had was frozen hamburger and deer meat. She thawed the meat and cut it into small chunks. Then she used tweezers to feed the meat to the “baby hooters,” as she called the owlets. She called them this because of the sound adult screech-owls make: Hoot, hoot!
Did You Know?
Different kinds of owls make different noises. Owls can purr, chirp, bark, whistle, screech, whinny, and—of course—hoot.
The hungry owlets snatched the meat from the tweezers and swallowed the chunks whole. When their bellies were full, they tucked their heads into their feathers and fell asleep.
But soon, the babies lifted their beaks into the air again. Peep, peep! they cried, begging for more food. All through the night, Mrs. Kuhn fed the baby hooters. She gave them water through an eyedropper, too. Eat, drink, sleep. Eat, drink, sleep. It went on like this for two days.
What Mrs. Kuhn didn’t know is that owls need to eat bones, hair, and feathers, too. In the wild, the owlets’ parents would have fed them the entire animal. Bones and hair help owls cough up pellets. Pellets are hard lumps the size of peanuts. They are full of the things that owls cannot digest. If owls don’t cough up pellets every day, they can get sick. The baby hooters were not coughing up new pellets. Soon they lost energy. If Mrs. Kuhn did not find the owlets help soon, they would surely die.
