In the vast and boundless desert, drought and lack of water, the heat is unbearable, and many creatures are difficult to adapt to the desert environment. The owls, the smallest owl in the world, are the size of sparrows, but prefer desert environments.
Found in the deserts of Mexico and the southwestern United States of America, the owls live on desert cacti and form a peculiar "cohabitation" relationship with two other organisms.
In the big family of owls, most of them are not easy to mess with, and the owl can survive in the harsh desert environment, what ability does it have?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" >01The world's smallest owl, shrunk like a small hairball</h1>
Also known as xiū (鸺) and liú (鹠ú), the Ji Owl is small but has large eyes. The body is about 12-14 cm long, like a small sparrow, and when it retracts its neck, like a small round ball of hair, adults can hold it with open palms.
Although he is petite, his eyes appear large and round, and his golden round eye mask is wrapped around the black pupils, and his eyes are particularly sharp. A hook-shaped beak with two small holes at the base. It is always able to penetrate the night and accurately lock on to its prey.
Covered with brown feathers, the head and back are covered with irregular orange markings. The brown color is dotted with white, the face has white spots, and the flight feathers also have white spots.
You don't have to say that the little ji owl looks a little cute, but the eyes and movements will always reveal the style of a bird of prey.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" >02 likes to eat scorpions, cut off the tail spines after catching them and eat them</h1>
The main question facing surviving in the desert is what to eat? The owl mainly eats insects, spiders, moths, scorpions, centipedes, etc., and it eats insects that fly in the air and climb on the ground.
The owl is not a picky owl, but it also has a preference for food, specializing in scorpions and centipedes, and in the face of poisonous scorpions, it has its own solutions.
The owl emerges day and night, looking for food in the desert, and with its light posture and superb flying skills, it skillfully shuttles through the cactus and tequila flora, looking for insects as rations.
After finding a few moths, he finally found a scorpion in front of him, and the owl tightened its wings and quickly raided, and when it landed, it grabbed the scorpion with its claws.
At this time, be sure to guard against the scorpion's needle, if it is stabbed, it will be injected with toxins. However, the thick feathers of the owls are able to withstand the needles. The owl deftly avoids the scorpion's prick and then cuts off the scorpion's tail spine with a sharp, curved hook-like beak.
The scorpion with the broken tail thorn no longer had the ability to resist, and the owl pecked at the scorpion with confidence and ate very happily. Nature is all things, one thing descends one thing, and the Ji Owl is the "nemesis" of the scorpion.
This little guy is super prednisive, and he is quite dedicated. If you have a spouse, you will also take back the food you caught and give it to your spouse to eat.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="17" >03 lives in the woodpecker's nest and lets the blind snake clean the nest</h1>
The day in the desert is hot, but the owl has thick feathers, how to avoid the heat? The clever owl will fly to the woodpecker's nest to rest, clear and comfortable.
Woodpeckers peck at a hole in a high cactus, go out to forage during the day and come back to sleep at night. Then the nest is idle during the day, and the owl can just come and live.
The owl lives in the woodpecker's nest and always has a way to get along with the woodpecker, never at night. However, two different birds, living in the same nest, are always unhygienic.
What's even more amazing is that the owl hired a "cleaner", a blind snake, to eliminate the parasites in the nest. The blind snake is an earthworm-like reptile, has no sense of existence, eats parasites in burrows, and sometimes finds parasites to eat on owl and woodpeckers.
With the blind snake as a "cleaner", the cleanliness in the nest is not worried, and the owl and woodpecker also have a clean space to live.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="23" > conclusion</h1>
Owls distributed in different regions have their own survival skills. As the youngest owl, the owl lives in the harsh desert, loves to eat scorpions and centipedes, and lives in the woodpecker's hole, maintaining a wonderful symbiotic relationship.
Xuelinggu Nature Lab/Production
References: Zoology, Journal of Friends of Science, Wildscreen