Burrowing owls displaced from habitats by developers in Fort Myers

Neighbors in a Fort Myers neighborhood claim the developers are displacing the burrowing owls. One neighbor sent in a photo of two burrowing owls on her front porch.

“One it’s rainy season and so the burrows get wet and the owls don’t do well with swimming in the burrows and so they look for a higher shelter or because they’ve been displaced because of the development,” Pasha Donaldson of Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife, said.

Pasha Donaldson is the President of Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife. She said as long as the developers have a permit it is legal. In this case, the developer at the Trevi Community on McGregor Isles did have a signed permit.

“If a developer has a permit to destroy the burrow then the owls have to look for a new home. They are not relocated as so many people are told or under the impression that they physically take the owl and give them a new home. That’s not true,” Donaldson said.