Many people think of owls living in trees, and most of them sleep during the day and move at night. The exception is a small owl called the Burrowing Owl, which lives in a cave and can be active 24 hours a day.
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The burrowing owl is an owl of the owl family Owl family, 19-25 cm long, living in the tropical open grasslands, deserts, meadows, and can also be seen in golf courses, gardens, airports and other areas of human activity. They use abandoned burrows as their own caves, and they also make their own holes when they encounter loose soil.
A burrowing owl that lives on a golf course
Moreover, the burrowing owl is very receptive to human kindness and will use the artificial nest box placed by humans in the ground.
This group of burrowing owls accepted the human nest box
When a dangerous intruder is found at the mouth of the cave, the cave owl in the cave will make a hissing sound similar to a poisonous snake to scare the other party away.
Burrowing owls are warning to invading prairie dogs
Unlike other owls, burrowing owls are not very good at flying, and they are more accustomed to moving on the ground. The burrowing owl often stands on the mound or the mouth of the cave to observe, the surrounding beetles, lizards, rats can not escape its eyes, when found the prey will step out of the long legs to rush to hunt.
The cave owl found a blue-tailed stone dragon
They also have a unique way of hunting, collecting cow dung, sprinkling it at the mouth of the cave to attract beetles, dung beetles, etc., and then eating buffets in front of their homes without leaving home.
Burrowing owl collecting cow dung
The opening of the hole where cow dung was piled up
Some burrowing owl live close to humans, but also go to turn over garbage, they are not eating garbage, but collecting food as bait, just like collecting cow dung, or to deceive insects to come to the door.
This burrowing owl collects human garbage as bait
Cow dung and human garbage attract insects, as well as insect-eating sparrows, rats, etc., and the burrowing owl can take advantage of these large ingredients.
Flies that are attracted to food do not know that they have become food themselves
In addition to using cow dung as bait, when breeding, burrowing owl will also carry feces back into the burrow, the heat generated by the feces can keep the cave warm, and the insects that grow in the feces can become food for the chicks.
The chicks should learn their mother's cow dung hunting method and pass on the skills
Is this kind of cave owl that knows how to use feces very smart?