How Canada is trying to protect its last three spotted owls Cara McKenna in Vancouver There are only three known northern spotted owls left in the wild in Canada, including just one breeding pair. Their chicks have on occasion been taken for a captive breeding program, to try and boost the species’ prospects. Now Canada and British Columbia have announced a more full-throated response to the potential extinction of the owl within the country’s borders. In tandem with the breeding scheme, the province will enforce a one-year halt to logging in the few remaining old-growth forests that the owl favors, until more permanent protections can be instituted.