Gold and Platinum Level Adopters of Valentino:
Paisley Dietz • The Triplehorn-Osborn Family • Sophia C. • Nik Stanek • Brian Gatens • David Berg • Mike & Leigh Lewis
Valentino came to Cascades Raptor Center from the Mt. Shasta region of Northern California. She had been illegally raised in the spring of 2009 and then released at the home of her finders. She continued to visit them for food, but when they moved away, the new residents were intimidated and threatened to shoot her. Luckily, Valentino was captured by a licensed rehabilitator, who brought her to Cascades Raptor Center for assessment in September of 2009. She joined our education team that fall.
Valentino is a well-loved member of the ambassador team and has helped teach hundreds of programs about owls. As a human imprint, she is too socialized to people for life in the wild but is very comfortable meeting visitors of all ages.
She is very small for a Great Horned Owl, which made staff assume for years that she was male (in raptors, females tend to be the larger sex) – until March of 2018, when she laid her first egg after 8 years of life in human care!
Spanish bird biographies by CrossCultural Now