The last thing a rodent sees—an amazing high speed video of a Eurasian eagle owl (Bubo bubo):
and a baby owl learns to hunt by pouncing on. . . nothing
h/t: Daveau
Good owl hunting
August 13, 2011 • 9:17 am
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
I have to say, these videos make me want a pet owl. They’re very nearly as awesome as cats.
Gerald Durrell, in his books about his boyhood on Corfu, mentions his pet scops owl any number of times. One gathers that it was a fairly good pet, as predatory birds go.
Lots of pictures of scops owls at Google images.
Durrell’s books on his Corfu boyhood:
My Family and Other Animals
Birds, Beasts, and Relatives
Garden of the Gods
and for completists, there is a single short episode in
Fillets of Plaice
Warning: make sure your seatbelt if fastened before beginning to read these books. Otherwise you will fall on the floor laughing.
I must add that while Durrell’s many books about his animal hunting expeditions are rather tepid tea, the ones listed above are among those immortal books that will be making people laugh two hundred years from now.
A ridiculously large fraction of the Google images of scops owls show them with their heads rotated to unnatural angles. Yet more evidence that owls rock. I will definitely have to check out those books, RFW.
That baby owl play reminds me of a kitten. Do you think they are related?
Want.Baby.Owl.
Owls are the coolest brids EVER!
I was on a horseback trailride in an early spring beech-forest once. The only sounds were the muffled thuds of hooves on soft forest leaves. Suddenly and with no noise a large brown owl alighted from a high branch and swooped down over us, flew through lowhanging branches at high speed without ever hitting as much as a newly sprung leaf. So majestic and beautiful.
Cross between owl and swift: “high-brid”.
LOL – didn’t see THAT typo until you made me aware of it.
One of the more entertaining ones at least. 😉
That baby owl is so cute… do you think it’s trying to pounce on its shadow?
Notice the baby owl in the second vid closed his eyes as he simulates the bite. I suspect owls do that to protect their eyes from their thrashing prey.
Sharks do the same thing, and often close their eyes very early as they have electrosensors to guide them.
Back before my hood gentrified I used to see a lot of barn owls who lived in vacant buildings and ate dumpster rats. I used to love to listen to them fight. They would make this “GWAK, GWAK,…” territorial call.
When I first saw that baby owl vid, I think I watched it 50 times. I don’t see a shadow or target, I think it just picked a spot for kill practice. Such a terrific STARE on the little peanut. Best Eagle Owl vid I ever saw. Tremendous.
Credit where credit is due. Felicia is the person who turned me onto the slo-mo.
Exactly doing that swoop was how those owls made widow impression (a few weeks ago).
Window!
Can he hear the termites or something?