The tiny owl chick was in an incubator with its mother away

The female bird went missing from the Welsh Hawking Centre, in Barry, south Wales - leaving its chick to fend for itself.

But police revealed on Thursday that the bird had been found safe and well in a shed in Cardiff.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of theft and handling stolen goods.

The bird's mate was also taken from the centre, but was later found and returned.

During the female bird's absence, the centre's owners, Ceri and Norma Griffiths, had to hand-rear the vulnerable chick because its father would not look after the young bird.

The chick was being cared for in an incubator, and the centre owners had expressed concerns for its health.

Norma Griffiths told BBC Wales she was worried it might not survive. "If it was a tiny chick, it wouldn't be a problem getting it to feed.

Only the father owl remains to look after the chicks

"But because it's already been feeding off its parents, it now thinks it's an owl and it doesn't really want to take food from a human.

"If it gets so tame that it is taking food readily from me, it's never going to go back in with its parents."

The pair of owls was taken in the third break-in at the hawking centre in a week.

In earlier thefts, two Harris hawks were stolen before the owls were taken last Friday.

The male was returned to the centre on Sunday after a man found children playing with it in the Ely area of Cardiff.