Two stowaway owls have been living the good life in Spain after hitchhiking on Allure of the Seas' transatlantic cruise in February.
During the 12-night voyage, a pair of burrowing owls felt right at home in the ship’s Central Park neighborhood after boarding the ship in Miami, Florida.
The owls were eventually caught by crew members using nets, fed and watered according to expert guidelines, and handed over o Spanish officials after arriving in Barcelona.
Since arriving in Spain, the owls have been living lavishly at the CITES Wildlife Rescue Center (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) in Murcia.
Their quarantine will wrap up in January, after which they are slated to be returned to the United States around the middle of the month. Their return airfare will be covered by the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida, the charitable arm of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
Natalie Montero-McAllister, the FWC's Imperiled Species Policy Administrator, told The Guardian that the owls are ground-dwelling, spending most of their time in burrows or open areas.
As such, they likely were confused by the ship's vast metal expanses and the absence of their usual diet, consisting of small reptiles and birds, frogs, and rodents.
"It must have been very bewildering for them. Some of the newer cruise ships have a lot of green space, and like plant life on board to make it more park-like, so I’m curious if that may have been something that was of particular interest or comforting for them," she added.
Still, it's not clear how the owls made it on Allure of the Seas, an Oasis Class ship and one of the world's largest cruise vessels, in February.
After returning to the U.S., they will be released into the wild once they pass an assessment and re-assimilation test at a Florida facility.
"We plan to release them to another area that they’re likely familiar with, since they came from somewhere in Miami. We’re under the impression that they are accustomed to urban environments, so we’ll bring them to another urban environment, so that way it’s something familiar to them," Montero-McAllister explained.
Tindl Rainey, the Director of Conservation at the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida, said that they are happy to help ensure the owls have a safe transition back to their natural habitat.
"They’re having quite the adventure, and we’re glad to help get them safely back to a burrow in Florida," she stated.
Not the first stowaway owls on a Royal Caribbean cruise
(Credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission/Facebook)
In 2023, passengers reported seeing a burrowing owl aboard Symphony of the Seas during a Caribbean cruise.
Royal Caribbean contacted local wildlife authorities to safely apprehend and remove the owl from the ship's Central Park neighborhood, and biologist Ricardo Zambrano boarded the ship in Florida on disembarkation day to safely capture the owl with help from the crew.
"Zambrano only had a one-hour window of time between the passengers disembarking and new passengers coming aboard for their week-long vacation to Mexico [to capture the owl]!" the FWC said in a Facebook post.
(Credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission/Facebook)
"With some of the crew’s help, [Zambrano] placed mist nets around the owl’s perch of choice, the exit signs by the door. Two unsuccessful attempts later, the owl was now sitting on the balcony of a [10th-story] cabin. The crew stood below making noise to distract the owl as [Zambrano] snuck up and safely netted the owl from the railing!"
