Firefighters in California have rescued a great horned owl from the ashes of a bushfire.
The Ventura County Fire Department firefighters were patrolling a fire line near Somis, north of Los Angeles, when they saw the owl hopping around in the ashes of a eucalyptus grove.
The owl was "very docile" and was not moving around much, engineer Mike DesForges told the Ventura County Star.
He said crew member Caleb Amico wrapped the owl in his jacket and the firefighters contacted a local animal welfare group.
The owl has been nicknamed 'Ram', after one of the crew's mascots and their favourite American football team, the Los Angeles Rams.
Nicky Thole, from the Camarillo Wildlife Rescue Centre, said the firefighters pulled the bird from the ashes at the right time.
She expected the owl to make a full recovery.
"The owl is doing great. We've monitored him for 48 hours and we're going to move him outside now [that] we think that he can eat by himself and [see] if he has any laboured breathing in doing so," she said.
"I think the prognosis is great thanks to the efforts of the firefighters and I think they got him just in time out of that area and he will be able to be released."
Californian Governor Gavin Newsom declared a statewide emergency last week, with around 40,000 hectares destroyed by wildfires fuelled by historic winds in recent weeks, and more than 11,000 people evacuated from their homes.
