Introduction: What are the natural enemies of the owl that comes out of the day and night? Why are they rare in the countryside, and where have they gone?
I remember when I was a child in a rural area, as soon as it got dark in the summer, I would often hear some strange birds calling from some old houses in the village where no one lived, and even a little scary.
And adults will tell us that this is a bird that looks like a cat - the owl is barking. At that time, this kind of bird was still very common in the countryside, and once Grandma got up early to work in the mountains and picked up a small owl on the side of the road.
Then a few of our little children saw that it was very cute and raised it. At that time, after knowing that owls loved to eat mice, frogs and other meats, they would go out of their way to catch voles, catch frogs and catch fish for them to eat. It's just a pity that the owl that was hard to raise will one day be gone when it will fly.
In fact, for many rural children, they should have had a similar experience. As a post-80s generation, I have heard many of my peers say that I fed owls when I was a child. But now owls are very rare in rural areas.
Supposedly, the owl is a nocturnal animal, and humans rarely harm it, so why are they rarely seen now, and where have the owls gone?
A small introduction to owls
Here to explain, the owl does not refer to a bird, but a general term for all birds in the order Owl, this bird has a global distribution, there are statistics according to the current known owl species of more than 130 species, which can also be regarded as a large family of birds.
And this bird has a common feature, that is, their face is round, the eyes are also large and round, looking very similar to the head of the cat, so it is named owl.
But different breeds of owls, their size differences are also relatively large, smaller even if adults are only slightly larger than magpies, and the larger can be as high as nearly 1 meter, so it is also worthy of the title of "eagle", and is also a veritable bird of prey.
As we all know, the cat is a nocturnal animal, and the owl has similar habits to it, and also likes to rest and sleep in the cave during the day, and will not come out to forage until it is dark.
Although it is out at night, the owl has a strong night vision ability, can see far away, but also see very clearly, in the high trees can see the distant mice, snakes, and then accurate attack. Sometimes, the owl will also go to the river to catch fish to relieve hunger, which shows that it has a strong predatory ability.
Do owls have any natural enemies?
Because owls have the habit of lying out day and night, and many animals generally go out during the day, especially eagle animals, there are not many animals that can pose a threat to owls.
It can even be said that when the owl comes out at night, the owl has absolute "air supremacy" and almost no natural enemies.
And in the past, humans rarely hurt owls, because in the folk there are still owls that are a kind of "obscure bird". I believe that many people have heard the agricultural proverb "not afraid of the owl laughing, afraid of the owl crying".
Of course, owls don't laugh or cry, it's just two forms of owls. Folk legend has it that if an owl barks like a person crying, something bad will happen. And if the owl sounds like someone is laughing, it's a normal call.
Also because of the unique call of the owl, many people are very afraid of this bird, generally just drive away, and do not dare to hurt.
In addition, many farmers also know that owls are a beneficial bird for farmers. Because the owl's favorite food is to catch mice, it is simply a "rat catching little expert", an owl can catch an average of 5-8 mice a night, can kill more than 1600 mice a year, if it is an adult owl to catch mice is stronger.
For animals that are beneficial to agriculture, farmers will not easily hurt them. For example, swallows that nest under the eaves of the house are welcomed to their homes to help farmers catch pests.
So as long as humans don't catch and hurt owls, there are basically no natural enemies for them.
Why are there so fewer owls in the countryside now?
Since owls have no natural enemies, and humans generally do not harm them, why have the number of owls been significantly reduced in recent years, and the "grunting" of owls has rarely been heard?
In fact, this mainly has a lot to do with environmental changes in rural areas, the first is that there are many fewer rats in rural areas.
As mentioned earlier, the main food source of owls is rats. In the past, there were many farms in the countryside, and every household would store grain, and if there was food, there were rats. Owls like to eat mice, so they will appear near the countryside, and their purpose is to run the mice.
However, compared with the past, there are obviously fewer rats in rural areas, because many farmers do not hoard grain at home. And now if there are rats, farmers will buy rat poison or put mouse traps, so that the rats will be greatly reduced.
It is also because farmers often put rat poison, and will spray pesticides in the wild, and rats and other animals will eat these poisonous foods and then be eaten by owls, which will also endanger their lives. It can be said that the reduction of rural rats and the reduction of owl food are the main reasons for their decrease in numbers.
Secondly, light pollution in rural areas is also very serious. Owls are nocturnal animals that enjoy living in the dark. In the past, the countryside was pitch black at night.
However, in recent years, every household in the countryside has been electrified, and many people have installed excess light bulbs in their yards, and even there are street lights on the side of the road.
Coupled with the illumination of some cars, these super light stimuli are extremely harmful to the owl's vision. For safety, some owls will flee such environments and go to more off-the-beaten-track places.
Of course, there is another reason, that is, in the past, the houses in the countryside were all adobe houses, which were very suitable for owl hiding and activities, and some owls were settled in the caves of old houses.
But now it is different, there are very few old houses in the countryside, basically they are buildings, and owls are no longer suitable for such an environment, most of them have flown to the caves and tree caves of the mountains to settle down, and naturally they are rare.
Conclusion
Although the owl is not as fierce as the eagle, it chooses to act at night, which also makes it stand at the top of the food chain at night. At night, owls can even hunt eagles, and there have been many such videos on the Internet before.
But even so powerful, because owls feed on rats, and rats love to steal farmers' grain, which attracts the disgust of humans, so they often release rat poison, which also indirectly hurts owls, resulting in a sharp decrease in their numbers.
Coupled with the ubiquity of light pollution in the countryside, a small number of owls have begun to leave the countryside and go to an environment more suitable for their survival. It is for these reasons that owls in the countryside have become rare.