My name is Franca.
We are in Villa D’Adda in the Italian province of Bergamo.
I’m part of the group I Falconieri delle Orobie.
I’m Martina. I’m 12, 13 this year.
This is the famous Molla.
She’s not a year old yet, but she’s already the superstar
and the mascot of the group.
We called her Molla [spring] when she was little,
because she used to move up and down like a spring when she walked.
She was funny and we thought Molla suited her perfectly.
We’ve got many animals.
There is Molla, the famous owl,
then there is Wendy, an African Horned Owl,
Fumetta, a red-legged brown owl... Its scientific name is Strix Rufipes.
Then we have Snoopy and Heidi, which are two Barn Owls.
Snoopy is a boy and Heidi is a girl.
Their scientific name is Tyto Alba.
We have a Virginian Eagle Owl
and an African Eagle Owl, too.
Finally, there is the New Zealand Owl
and the European Horned Owl.
I became passionate about owls by chance
when some friends of ours gave us a little Barn Owl, Snoopy.
He was our first pet
and we managed to train him since he was little
until we reached imprinting.
Imprinting is a sort of affection
between the man and the bird.
You imprint by manually feeding the owls
in order to make them as close to you as possible.
So you kind of become their mother.
They have a gland filled with oil which they rub on their coat with their beak
to clean their feathers.
That’s why we try to prevent people from touching them
when we are outdoors.
We must have our daily ration of cuddles with our animals.
But we must also get people to understand
why they must not touch them.
It’s a matter of respect.
I’d like to work as a veterinarian
specializing in aviary diseases which affect exotic animals,
and then open a center for the rehabilitation of owls.