An injured owl that was wise enough to find a federal wildlife office has damaged eyes and can’t be returned to the wild. The great horned owl is being cared for at the Wildlife Center of Virginia, an animal hospital in Waynesboro. Because some of the eye damage is old, it’s possible the owl was hit by a car months ago, said Elizabeth Daut, a veterinarian at the center.

PETERSBURG Dana Ballenger brought home two baby doll sheep and gave them good Southern names, Jezabell and Thelma Lou. She checked first with city authorities to be sure zoning would allow for sheep on her 2-acre lot in historic Petersburg. “I am going green with my sheep,“ she said. “Forget the lawnmower belching out toxins and making lots of dust and stirring up allergens. My little sheep munch the grass, fertilize it and look beautiful while doing it.“

An injured great-horned owl was found — in all places — in front of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in eastern Henrico County.

Could more than one manatee be exploring the James River? A manatee was spotted in the Dutch Gap area near Chester on Monday, in Richmond just below downtown Tuesday—that’s about a 5-mile trip—and back in the Dutch Gap area Wednesday. “I honestly think there is more than one,“ said Joel Cloud, a Chester-area salesman who photographed a manatee in the Dutch Gap area Monday about 2 p.m.

Don’t go looking for one in your boat; you might hit the animal.
  Don’t harass or disturb a manatee.
  Do call (757) 437-6159 if you spot one.

A gentle sea monster is prowling the James River. River-goers spotted a manatee, also known as a sea cow, in Richmond on Tuesday and several miles downriver yesterday. “He’ll come up and get some air, roll over on his back, rub his face and go swimming along,“ said Joe Owen Jr., 37, a sergeant with the Dinwiddie County Sheriff’s Office.

or hit it with the boat.
  Do call (757) 437-6159 if you
spot it.

The mystique of raising trout is intimidating, Richard Landreth said. Actually raising trout, he assured several Smyth County teachers, is easy. If you can keep a goldfish alive, you can keep a trout alive, he said. Goldfish flourish in about 75-degree water. Trout like it a good 20 degrees cooler. That’s the main difference. Aside from being easy, the state Trout in the Classroom coordinator said, raising trout is educational. Last year, a fish tank in the classroom helped one Virginia teacher cover 13 of the 14 life-science objectives on the state Standards of Learning, Landreth said. The program, run by the state’s Trout Unlimited chapters, will reach about 15,000 students in more than 100 classrooms this year.

WAYNESBORO—A bald eagle whose birth and afflicted beak sent people flocking to the Internet to follow his plight is staying put in Waynesboro, where he has emerged as a symbol of his suddenly resurgent species. Doctors at the Wildlife Center of Virginia removed a lesion from the bird’s beak last year. The move saved the eagle, but lingering damage to his beak prevents him from cutting food and surviving in the wild, center President Ed Clark said this week. So the center has become home.

4 lion cubs debut at Norfolk zoo Four lion cubs made their public debut yesterday at the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk. The cubs joined their mother, Zola, in the first public exhibit of the newborns since their birth three months ago. The four new cubs were on display until they joined their mother for lunch. The four cubs are named Ajani, Razi, Dakari (at right) and Zarina, the lone female.

Richmond, we have liftoff. Three young peregrine falcons successfully took wing in downtown Richmond Tuesday and again yesterday. Volunteers and state game officials watched to make sure the birds didn’t plummet into traffic or get into some other kind of trouble. The only bird that had a problem was a female that tried a couple of times to latch on to windows. The bird would slide away, exhausted but OK.

Thousands of purple martins are returning to Shockoe Bottom, after all. A few weeks ago, it appeared that most of the Bottom’s summer visitors had moved somewhere else this season. But about 4,000 to 5,000 martins are once again swirling over the Bottom at dusk before swooping into a row of Bradford pear trees just north of the 17th Street Farmers’ Market.

The goitered gazelle and Himalayan elm are a world away from the squirrels and pines of the University of Richmond campus. But for a class of UR students, they presented a lesson in conservation that has helped Afghanistan take its first steps toward protecting natural resources damaged by three decades of war. The gazelle and elm made Afghanistan’s inaugural list of protected species, announced by the government June 3. Of the 33 species on the list, six are there because of the research efforts of UR students.

Ashland police last night were asking residents to stay inside while a black bear made its way out of the downtown area. Police were summoned at 7:13 p.m. after the bear was spotted in a residential section of downtown near the railroad tracks, said Lt. James Shelhorse. Officers located the animal, described as an adult bear, in a wooded yard on Maple Street, Shelhorse said. Officers then contacted the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

Statistics from the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries says the state’s black bear population is healthy and growing at over 7 percent a year. The numbers show that the black bear population is widespread from Tidewater to the southern Piedmont to the West Virginia border and everywhere in between. Game department figures show that the population has grown by about 37 percent since 2001 and is now slightly higher than the level at which biologists want it stabilized.