VISAKHAPATNAM: The mystery of the ‘Alien birds in Vizag’ was unravelled by the Forest Department staff on Tuesday afternoon. The department staff caught two baby white owls (owlets) at the Odisha Stevedores company office near the Old Town police station and confirmed that those are normal ‘Barn owl’ species and not any alien breed/ extraterrestrial guests.
But they are of an unusual size. As per the Zoo officials, these Barn owls have widely distributed species of the owl and one of the most widespread of all birds and its scientific name is ‘Tyto alba’. As some of the local people made complaints to the police about these birds, police, in turn, complained to the Forest department.
In response, the Forest department staff went to the Old Town and caught the two birds skilfully. “We are going to hand over these two owls to the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park (IGZP) in the city for protection and nourishment. There is no doubt about the identity of these birds, they are baby owls,” P Anjaneya Raju, the district forest ranger, told Express.