WASHI MIMIZUKO
Eurasian Eagle Owl
Bubo bubo
The Eurasian Eagle owl is a species of horned owl which lives across Asia, Europe, and northern Africa, and south to Pakistan, though it is not found in Australia and the islands of the southwest Pacific. It favors open woods and rocky areas, ravines and quarries.
The largest of the owls, the Eagle owl weighs over 4kg (8.82lb) and its wingspan can reach 200cm (6.56ft). Owls have no sense of smell, but they are far-sighted and while they are active mainly from dusk to dawn, they also have excellent day vision. Their eyes are fixed by a ring of bone which positions them in such a way that lets in all possible light. Owls are the only birds which have a nictitating membrane, an opaque third eyelid, just like a cat.
This same facial structure also channels sound to the owl's ears, making their hearing extremely acute. The ears of the male Eagle owl are large and visibly upright, though in the female the ears tend to droop. Eurasian Eagle owls have no serious natural enemies, and can live around twenty years in the wild, though they have been known to live for more than sixty years in captivity. Oddly enough, they are often annoyed by flocks of other birds, both large and small, who crowd the owls until they move to another territory.
The Eagle owl's diet consists mainly of small mammals, but also includes birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish, and insects, including snakes, crabs, ducks and seabirds, depending on what is available in their territory. They have been known to take foxes and young deer, and will skin something with spines, such as a hedgehog, before eating it. Eagle owls are silent hunters, perching or flying low until they spot their prey, which they capture either on the ground or in flight, or by diving into water.
The Latin name for this owl, bubo, is derived from the deeply resonant call of the male. The females have a higher pitched call, and both add various clicks, chirps, hoots and beak clacking, and when threatened, barks and growls . Each owl has a unique and identifiable voice, just like we humans do, and with such are able to communicate with their mates and young in the dark.
Hear the call of the Eurasian Eagle Owl ((quicktime required)
Sexually mature between two and three years old, Eurasian Eagle owls do not build their own nests. If they cannot appropriate a large enough nest from some other bird, they nest in piles of natural debris on cliff ledges or in tree branches. The favorite nesting place is a hole in a tree, or a crevice in a rock, or even a cave entrance. They female lays one to four round eggs which hatch in just over a month. The female incubates the eggs while her mate provides food and security.
The chicks are fed by both parents until they leave the nest at five to seven weeks. These owlets are called branchers and can only scramble around until they develop enough feathers to fly, about three weeks later. The adults continue to monitor their young until they reach maturity at about six months.
In Japanese folklore, Eagle owls are thought to be the messengers of the gods. Barn or Horned owls are considered to be demonic beings. The Ainu, the indigenous people of northern Japan, believe that the owl is an omen of good luck and that if a person hears the sound of rain falling when walking beneath a branch where an owl is perched, he will become rich. Other Ainu stories explain why owls hate rats and how the owl came to eat fish.
The Rat and the Owl
An owl had put by for next day the remains of something dainty which he had to eat. But a rat stole it, whereupon the owl was very angry, and went off to the rat's house, and threatened to kill him. But the rat apologised, saying: "I will give you this gimlet and tell you how you can obtain from it pleasure far greater than the pleasure of eating the food which I was so rude as to eat up. Look here! you must stick the gimlet with the sharp point upwards in the ground at the root of this tree; then go to the top of the tree yourself, and slide down the trunk."
Then the rat went away, and the owl did as the rat had instructed him. But, sliding down on to the sharp gimlet, he impaled himself on it, and suffered great pain, and, in his grief and rage, went off to kill the rat. But again the rat met him with apologies, and, as a peace-offering, gave him a cap for his head.
These events account for the thick cap of erect feathers which the owl wears to this day, and also for the enmity between the owl and the rat. (Told by Ishanashte, 25th November, 1886.)
The Owl and the Tortoise
The tortoise[-god] in the sea and the owl[-god] on land were very intimate, The tortoise spoke thus: "Your child is a boy, My child is a girl, so it will be good for us to unite them in marriage. If I send into the river the fish that there are in the sea your son and my daughter, being both of them enabled to eat fish, will possess the world." Thus spoke the tortoise. The owl was greatly obliged. For this reason, the child of the tortoise and the child of the owl became husband and wife. For this reason, the owl, without the least hesitation, eats every fish that comes into the river.—(Translated literally. Told by Penri, 15th July, 1886.)
Take home a Eurasian Eagle Owl!
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sources:
Fresno Zoo
World Owl Trust
The Peregrine Fund
wiki-Eurasian Eagle Owl
Aino Folk-tales
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