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How Owls Work · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and there's Chuck and Jerry's helicoptering around or perched nearby.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: All that will make sense in a little bit. And
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: this is stuff you should know. Bird of prey a
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: dish yeah, raptors and one of my favorite birds, a
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: dish yeah. Mine to love me. Some owls. We get
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: very excited here at the cent of Bryant House whenever
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: we get to see some owl action in the backyard.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: We have some woods in a creek behind our house,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: and I don't know, for a while there it seemed
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: like they might have been nesting. We were getting a
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: lot of visitors, but had one in the driveway one
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: time on a branch that we went out and looked at,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: and it did that deal where it's facing another way
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: and hoodie hood at it and it turns this little
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: head around like the exerc tried at us, and Emily
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: went and Ruby was excited, and uh see we hear
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: at the camp having I don't know if they're having
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: sex or if those are mating calls, but some of
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: the crazy sounds they make manly interesting Yeah. I was
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: looking up all the different owl calls and um, they
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: are just magnificent and they're so very there's just so
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: many different calls. They sound so dissimilar. It's really cool.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: There's one owl that sounds like a winning horse. Yeah,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: my favorite. I think it's the Eastern screech owl. It
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: sounds like like a tiny little horse is winning. It's
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: it's one of the best bird calls I've ever heard.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Ten out of ten. Uh would recommend, Yes, Okay, for sure,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: I just did. I think the ones that we hear
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: are the the crazy sounds. I think they're just regular,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: not the bard owls, but the the great horned right,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: those are I think those are the ones that most
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: people think of when they think of an owl. But
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I think they're just sexy calls, like mating calls. But
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: they sound like howler monkeys almost. They do not sound
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: like owls. It's really crazy. Yeah, totally anyway, So I
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: love ols the end. I love owls too, And we're
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: gonna talk all about owls and including the how they
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: turn their heads all the way around, which is pretty cool. Um.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: But one of the things that you hit upon right
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: out of the gate, Chuck was that owls are raptors
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: or birds of prey, so that that would put them
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: in league with hawks and eagles and that kind of thing. Um,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: But there are a lot different from hawks and eagles,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: not just in their looks and appearances, but in their
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: biology and the way that they hunt, the way that
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: they eat. Um, you know, they're they're they're actually definitely
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: their own thing. Yeah, there are lots stockier um actually
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and look up wingspan, but to me, uh, it's always
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: signature owl. When you really notice something out of the
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: corner of your eye, I'm always like, oh, wait, that
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: has to be an owl because their wingspan is is
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: much more impressive than the hawks and the falcons around here. Yeah.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: And they have big old heads of course, and little
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: shorty tails. Uh, they got that. The toe is kind
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: of a pretty featured, pretty cool featured, don't anythink. Yeah,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: it goes either forward or backward, I guess, depending on
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: the bowl's mood. There's another thing that's like so quintessentially owl,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: and that it has big eyes, not beady little eyes
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: like your hawks or your eagles, but like big, almost
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: human like eyes, perfectly round in the middle of their head,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: not on the side of their head, but front facing eye,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: so they have really amazing binocular vision and um, they
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: have probably the best night vision of any animal out there,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: even better than cats. They say, yeah, and you know
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: one of the ways, Uh, this is something I wasn't
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: sure about because sometimes you see the owl with the
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: black eyes that are you know, I love my oles,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: but those are a little intimidating looking in animal jet
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: black eyes and then the regular eyes where you can
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: see color and pupils and stuff, And apparently they are
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: the strictly nocturnal ones are the ones with the black eyes,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: and that's how you can tell. And it's not like
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: it doesn't help them and hunting other than their black
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: to aid in their camouflage, so they can literally just
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: be as dark as the night around them in every
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: part of their body. I always took it as um
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: their their eyes were black because they were saturated with
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: all the souls that they captured over the years. I
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: think that's probably true too. So um, owls have been
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: around for a little while, Chuck, and they're actually super
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: because they've been around. I think the oldest owl fossil
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: that we found is like up to fifty five million
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: years old. Um. And because they've been around so long,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: they were living on Earth at a time and the
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: continents were in a totally different configure ration than they
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: are today. And so owls are like widespread there on
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: every single continent except Antarctica. Um. And they live in
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: all sorts of different habitats. As we'll find out, there's
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: I think two fifty species total. And because they live
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: in all these different places, but they're all still owls,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: they do slightly different things. They've evolved somewhat differently, um,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: which is I just I think it makes owls even
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: neater frankly. Yeah, and uh, you know it was the
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: little guy, the elf. Yeah, the elf owl. Those are
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: super cute. Those are the tiniest ones. And owls can
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: get quite large though, but it's it's a different kind
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: of big. It's they have, like you know, they've got
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: that girth because they're short and stubby. Still. Uh. And
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: in Georgia I looked up, we have I think eight
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: different kinds of owls that you might see, but mainly
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: the great horned and occasionally, if you're really lucky, you'll
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: see a barn owl. Yeah, those cool white faces. We
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: got some greech owls and some burrowers here and there,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: but but mainly you're going to see the great horned
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: or the bard or the barn. Yes, the barred ones
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: are pretty great to Those are the ones that look
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: like real tree camouflage and like browns and grays. They
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: look they look very much like the great horned owl,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: except they don't have those toughs you know. Yeah, is
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: that what the the horns are. Yeah, it's just toughs
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: of feathers that makes it look horned. Yeah, they're they
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: look like ears, but they're not ears. No, they don't,
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: and they're actually they have nothing to do with hearing
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: from what I saw there. Actually, I think they use
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: them to communicate to other owls nonverbally, like look out
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: behind you or something, and then um. They also can
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: move them in different positions, so it breaks up the
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: shape of the owl and lets them camouflage in with
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: branches among the trees more easily. That makes sense. I mean,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: they are as cool as they aren't. They are like
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: evolutionarily perfect killing machines, but satically is what owls are.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: But they're also super chill too. Yeah, I mean you
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: talked about the camouflage. It is pretty funny now that
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I think about it. For being such a sort of
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: large squat object, they can be really hard to find,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: like in your backyard when you're like I hear it
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: and he's very close to me or you know, and
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: then finally your eyes adjust and you go, Okay, there
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: she is right there. Yeah, exactly. Very adaptable camouflage. Well,
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: not adapt that doesn't change like an octopus, but you
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: know what I mean, they've adapted will. So you mentioned
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: barn owls, they're actually a different family of owl. So
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: all owls are grouped into the strigi forms, That's how
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: I'm saying, and then the strigiforms are subdivided into these
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: two families. Um Titan of d Day. I added an
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: extra syllable, titana day. Yeah, okay, I got it. Those
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: are all about barn owls. It's about seventeen species, and
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: then all the other approximately rest of the two and
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: fifties species are streaky day, which are true owls. And
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the way that they typically differentiate them, Chuck is the
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: um barn owls have the heart shaped face. True owls
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: have more of a rounded disc face. I think the
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: barn owls have a little bit longer legs, but they're
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: you know, they're fairly similar in size depending on the species,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: unless you get you know, some some crazy outlier like
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: the elf owl sure, which are ridiculously cute. They're like
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: they I don't know if they're the same size or
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: the same weight of a golf ball. Oh man, it's
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: got to be weight, I think, so golf ball is tiny.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: So I think the most familiar owls in North America
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: and Europe are the true owls, right, But barn owls
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: are found everywhere in the world basically. Yeah, but I
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: think they're obviously because they're more groupings or more true owls, right.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: And we were talking about the hooting, and it's funny,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: I've seen I saw this in multiple places, this thing
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: that you found like when you hear a barred owl
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: hooting the who cooks for you? And who cooks for
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: you all? And I didn't get that until I watched
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: the videos and paired it with what they were saying,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: and I kind of get it now. But I would
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: argue that it's who cooks for y'all? Yeah, because it's
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: still for still four hoots, yeah, not five hoots. Yeah,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: you're right, that's I couldn't put my finger on it.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: I'm like that, that's not quite it. Yeah, here, let
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: me let me try my best attempt. That's pretty close
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: to the bar. Yeah, and I added the y'all in
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: there for you. So yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah, I
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: thought I did a pretty good owl. But that puts
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: me to shame. So barn owls. So there's there's these
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: little weirdos. They're their own family. Um. They have heart
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: shaped faces and they also hiss. That's like the call
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: that they make is a hissing sound. There a little weirdos.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: As we'll see. They're really cool looking and very interesting owls,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: but they're they're strange in their own way for sure. Yeah,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: and then you got, like you said, that screech owl
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: that winnis uh, the saw weet owl has sort of
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: a um they liken it to a file being scraped
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: across saw teeth. I don't get that at all. I
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: didn't get that at all. But it is kind of
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: a high tone and it does sound different than a
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: lot of owls. But I just encourage if you've got
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: ten minutes in your life, just sit around and listen
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: to some alcohols. It's a good time. There's actually like
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: hour and a half long YouTube videos or that, like
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: nighttime owl calls to calm you down, and it's great.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Like if you've run out of stuff, you should know
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: episodes and you have to say, maybe turn to something
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: like that. I think we should talk about their head
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: turn though the exorcistem move, because when you see one
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: and they turn it to look directly those black eyes
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: directly into your face. I don't care how much you
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: love an owl, it is very a very chilling sensation
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: that comes up for you. It just is. It's because
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: the owls regarding you, they're not even looking at you.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: They're they're like sizing you up. You can tell, you know, yeah,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: maybe that's it. It's like are you food sort of look.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: I almost take it as more like are you even
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: worthy to be in the same area A kind of thing,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying a little bit a little bit. Yeah,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: but they I mean, but they deserve to do that.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: I think owls can back that up. They're that cool. Yeah.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Well they use that, like you said, because their eyes
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: are on the front of their face, so they have
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: to turn their head to be able to see because
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: they're very focused very you know, long range binocular vision.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: It's some really good vision. But their eyeballs just don't
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: move around. They can't. They can't move their eyeballs at all. Right,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: they have actually what are called I tubes, we have
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: like eyeballs that can move around. They're they're just tubes
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: are fixed in their head um. And yeah, so they
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: have to turn their whole head. And the way that
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: they turn their whole head two hundreds and having d degrees,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: it's three quarters of a full circle. That's a that's
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: really impressive. I mean, you try that. Don't try that.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Actually you might seriously injure yourself. But so an awl
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: can turn their head that well because they actually have
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: a mechanism where blood is constantly pooling in this little
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: collection area, so that when they turn their head towards
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: after a certain point, they cut off the circulation to
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: their eyes and brains, so they would not be able
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: to get any blood any longer to those very vital
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: organs were it not for that collection of blood that's
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: pooled up that's pumping it into their eye and brain
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: while their head is turned around to that degree. Amazing.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: I think that's effect of the show yeah, I'll back
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: that up. You get something better. I don't know owl
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: that sounds like a small winning horse. That's pretty impressive
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: to you know. Uh. They also can have asymmetrical ears,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: meaning their ears can be at different heights on their
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: own head, which is really cool, and that just basically
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: is a more efficient hearing system. They have really great
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: hearing as well. They can hear. They can hear like
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: a mouse under two ft of snow moving around. Yeah,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: and they can like really triangulate because the difference in
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: the arrival time for a sound between one year and
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: the other, since they're offset, can help them pinpoint exactly
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: where that prey is. And because they're they're they're hearing
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: is so amazing that they can hear under dirt, snow, leaves, um,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: wherever the poor little mouse is trying to hide. The
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: owl can actually hear it moving around in there, probably
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: breathing really nervous because it knows an owl is out there.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: And one of the other ways that they um can
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: hear so well checked because of their face too, right, Yeah,
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: and this is this is super cool. If you've ever
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: seen an owl, I mean, they all have feels like
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: sort of flat faces, but some of them almost like
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: concave in the way their face is really flat, and
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: then the feathers around their face kind of come out
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: to form a a little bowl almost, and that is
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: a evolutionary trade. It basically turns their face into an
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: ear in a certain way. Yeah, almost like a like
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: a um uh antenna or um Yeah. One of them
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: discs hold up at a football game, satellite dish. Sure,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: what do you hold up at a football game? Well,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: you know the microphone people at sporting events, they have
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: a microphone inside a big dish. So catch just the sound.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: I thought you were talking about fans for some reason,
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: and my brain was like, I can't bring any image
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: of what Chuck is talking about up right. Now. There's
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: a there's a word for it too, because it's you know,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: you're pointed at something far away and it helps collect
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: this sound. Yeah, I know, exactly like an earhorn. Sure,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: like a owl face is probably what the face. I
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: think that's what they call it in the in the
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: in the industry. Sure break, oh jinks, Chuck jinks. The
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: spirit of the owl is with us. All right, We'll
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: be right back after this, all right, So you put
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: this thing together with the help of some great websites
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: on owls. And you're including our our friends house stuff Works.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they have a good one on owls. They
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: had some on owls flying Silently, but also um mental
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: Floss had a really good article audubon, um fizz dot org,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Research Institute and owling dot com and Mr Skin Oh wait, um,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: so what you found on most of those websites is
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: that owls just have a few basic needs to live
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: and thrive and that as of course as food and
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: we'll talk about how the hunting all that stuff coming
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: up here soon. They gotta have someplace to roost. And
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: as we'll see, owls are are house thieves. Uh, they
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: steal nests and burrows. They're not. They don't like building
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: houses and nests, so they tend to steal them. Uh.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: And then they need, you know, they need a place
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: to nest. Uh. Like roosting and nesting near food is
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: a big component of being an owl. And near food
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: can mean a lot of different places depending on where
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: you are in the world. Yeah, and the difference between
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: a roost and a nest is a roost is where
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: they sleep for the night or the day actually more
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: like it. And then their nest is where they have
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: their babies and rear their their little owlets or what
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: they're called. And because that's all they really need. Like,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: you can find that just about everywhere in the world.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: And that's one of the reasons why owls have been
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: so successful almost everywhere in the world, in addition to
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: the fact that their night hunting maniacs um and so
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: you can find them in sub Saharan Africa and try
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: pics in Hawaii. Um. And the habitats they live in
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: are also just all over the place, like wetlands, marshlands,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: the Arctic tundra, the snowy owl, which fans of Harry
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Potter are familiar with, hedwig owl. He was he I'm sorry,
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: she was a snowy owl. Um. And they hunt in
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: the Arctic and live in the Arctic forests of any kind. Deserts,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: that little alf owl that you're so fond of, understandably,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: So they live in the desert, right, Yeah. They they
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: eat a lot of insects, a lot of spiders. They
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: even eat scorpions, the occasional small reptile if it's small enough.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: And where are you gonna find that in the desert? Yeah?
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: And then they also live in the cacti that you
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: find in the desert. They live in little hollowed out
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: holes of the um. How do you say that, seguaro cacti?
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: That sounds good, the big famous, you know, like anytime
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: bugs bunny's walking through the desert exactly, that's the siguara
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: as far as I know. And alf owls live in
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: in hollows in the saguaro cacti. Yeah, I think I've
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: drawn a picture of an owl inside the hole a
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: cactus hole? Really? Yeah? Was that when you were living
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: in Huma? No? But you know, sometimes when you have
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: a kid, you sit around draw things with them, and
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: like one of my go twos as a kid was
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: a desert scene because a cactus is pretty fun to draw,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: and anytime I drew a cactus, I would draw a
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: little hole with a little al face. Really yeah, And
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: I have one here at the house with from the
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: past two years that I will take a picture of
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: and put it on my Instagram and maybe even on
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: the stuff each and know Instagram. Actually, I think that's
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: a great idea. The thing is, the reason I'm like, wow,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: really impressed is because I had no idea that owl's
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: first of all lived in the desert, but secondly nested
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: in cacti. I started researching this, so I'm very impressed.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: I always did that though, And I always anytime I
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: drew like a big oak, I would draw a hole
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: with like a square face. Well that one makes sense.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: I do that. Yeah, I was just a dump kid.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know how I knew about owls. And I'm impressed. Um,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: the great horned owl because they're so huge and boss
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: they hunt just about everywhere. And then there's burrowing owls,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: which are almost like the roadrunners of owls, and you know, squirrels,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: prairie dogs, sometimes turtle burrows. Um, the owls will be like, hey,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: are you You're not using this anymore, I'm gonna take
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: it over, thank you. There is one kind of owl
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: that burrows its own burrows, the Florida burrowing owl. But
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: that's from what I saw, basically the only the only
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: kind that actually creates its own burrows. But yeah, they
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: also barn owls obviously roost and barnes. Um. A lot
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: of owls are totally fine in the suburbs of the
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: city or in parks. Um. I mean, it's not like
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: you exactly live out in the country and you've got
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: owls in your backyard, you know, yeah, absolutely, uh. And
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: one thing you were talking about, roadrunners a very fun
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: thing to do if you ever have a few minutes,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: it's just Google or website search engine of your choice
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: running owl and just look at these pictures of owls
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: running on the ground. A lot of times they're little babies,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: which will see you know, sometimes where they can fly,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: they run. But it's my understanding that's one of the reasons.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Maybe the only reason they can turn that one talent
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: around is if they're not you know, they don't need
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: it to grasp on something. They can turn it around
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: to run. And just this image of a barn of
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: little baby barn right, it looks like a person in
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: a little fuzzy suit. Yeah, because they stand up. Um,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: the barn owls in particular stand up pretty straight and
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: erect like people. And there was actually a viral video
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: that a lot of dummies on the internet were like
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: these are aliens where somebody had gone into their barn
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: they found too baby barn owls that were standing there
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: staring back at the camera and um, people were like,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: it's it's obviously alien. It's it's pretty famous video. Actually,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: it's worth looking up. I've probably seen it. Um. As
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: far as their behavior, you did mention sleeping at night
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: A lot of but not all of them. But a
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: lot of owls are nocturnal. That's the reason you're going
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: to hear those hoodie hoots and in the evening time
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: kind of when the sun's at the dusky time, when
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: the sun's going down. I'm sorry, I have to ask,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: are you making outcast references when you say that? Say
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: what hootie hoots? No? Okay, I wish I was. I
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: love outcasts. Well let's just say you were the great. Uh.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: I was trying to make another outcast joke, but then
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: I was just pushing it too far. There are hometown guys.
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: We love outcasts. Uh. Or sometimes in the middle of
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: the night, I've been, like I said, woken up at
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: the camp to some crazy owl activity. Uh. That's always
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: funny year you know, to know they're nearby hunting and
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: doing their thing. But there are They're not all nocturnal.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Some are diurnal. Um. Some are crepuscular. That means they're
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: active during dusk and dawn. Only I love hate that
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: word crepuscular. It does sound kind of gross in a way,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: doesn't it. Yeah, for sure, crepuscular. There's a pus in
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: the middle of it. Yeah, it does sound kind of dirty. Yeah,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: and it doesn't even fit like you would never if
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: you had no idea what crepuscular meant, you would never
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: in intuitively be able to come up with that. Well,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: because you it doesn't sound like the other two. You've
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: got nocturnal, diurnal, and then crepuscular. They really ran out
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: of ideas that the word factory. It's very strange, but
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: very efficient hunters at night. Uh, they fly almost completely
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: silently and all can really sneak up on a small rodent. Yeah,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: and you know they're they know the owls are around,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: so it's not like they're out there listening for the
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: owls as well. But the owl has really adapted to
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: just swoop down there in near silence and get a
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: a squirrel or a rabbit of snake another owl they
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: will hunt each other. Yeah, they're really kind of heartless hunters.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: The one thing I don't like about owls that they
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: predate on other owl species. And do you want to
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: talk about how they fly silently? Now? Because I think
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: it's a pretty good spot for it. Let's do it
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: take it away. So they're really well known for that.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: Like I've never seen an owl fly um like in
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: person um, but it must just be absolutely eerie to
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: see something flying past you and not making a sound.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: And the reason that they do that is because their
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: their wings and their feathers are basically made to muffle
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: and break up sound, like the leading edge. First of all,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: their wings are really broad, so they can they can
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: soar more easily without flapping, so just you know, by
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: virtue of not flapping as much, they're making less noise.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: And then the leading edge of their wings are serrated,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: kind of comb like, and that takes turbulence turbulences that
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: air hitting the wing and going over the top of
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: the wing, which makes a lot of noise. Anyone has
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: ever ridden an airplane can tell you that. But because
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: it's serrated, it breaks that turbulence up into much smaller,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: more manageable micro turbulences. And then it takes those micro
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: turbulences and passes them through the feathers, which further dampens everything. Right,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: that's right, Uh, they have those other soft feathers I
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: guess sort of underneath. Is that the way to describe it.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: I think I think um like in the trailing end
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: behind them. So yeah, depending on where that if the
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: owl is standing up with its wingspread, it'd be the bottom,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: if it's flying and be the rear okay uh. And
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: they also can that shift that sound energy away and
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: I think they it's basic lead. It's a sound, but
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: it's a higher frequency so the prey can't hear it
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: and presumably humans can't. And then their secondary feathers kind
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: of do the same thing too, right, they're all like
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: looking in concert whatever turbulence has made it through um
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: the feathers or over the feathers. The like the fact
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: that owl feathers on the bottom or rear edge are tufted.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: There's kind of you know, tough to it the best
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: way to put it. They actually break the turbulence up further.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: And they also there's down behind him, and the down
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: absorbs any remaining sound, so like their wings just they
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: don't they don't allow the owl to make sound as
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: it's flying through the air. Yeah, And it's like you said,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: it's a big, broad wide wingspan motion. So when something
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: that large is moving, but it's quiet. Is it can
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: be a little creepy, Yeah, I can imagine. And one
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: of the things that also makes owls so incredibly amazing
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: is that when they eat those rabbits or birds or squirrels,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: they um other birds of prey. Other raptors will kill them,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: usually with talents, and owls talents are amazingly strong, especially
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: the great horned owls. Supposedly it can exert them as
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: much force with its talents as the humans can maximally
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: with our bite. Um, it's pretty amazing. But they don't
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: actually um kill the prey with the talents. From what
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: I saw, they use their beak to basically kill the
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: prey after capturing it. And then what they do after
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: that is even more amazing. If you ask me, Chuck. Yeah,
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: they they swallow if they can. If it's too big,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: they have to tear it into pieces. But if they
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: can manage it, they swallow it whole. And whatever they swallow,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: say it's a mouse, that little mouse goes to a
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: temporary digestive organ called the proven triculus, and then it
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: goes to the gizzard and then from there it you know,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: the gizzard digests whatever it can digest and then whatever
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: it can't digest, like oh, I don't know, bones, let's say,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: or fur or other feathers or whatever. Uh, it sort
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: of just chills out down there for you know, up
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: to ten hours, Like their digestive system is blocked for
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: ten hours while this is happening, and it just you know,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: sort of squeezes it into a uh regurgitatable what they
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: call a pellet, an altbellet. If you've ever heard of
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: alt pellets. It's not poop or anything. They just hack
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: back up like a bony hairball, almost of what they
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: last ate, right, but they couldn't digest and absorb. It's
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: pretty cool. I think bony hairball could be. It's like
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: if weird Al would have had a band at the
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: beginning of this career instead of just a king a
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: solo act, it probably would have been bony hairball. That's
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: the only person who could have pulled that off to
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: so um. So yeah, it's pretty amazing that owls just
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: puke their undigestible parts of their food back up in
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: a nice efficient it um. And when they catch food,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: if the hunting is like really really good, they might
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: not eat it immediately. They'll do what I remember alligators do.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: They'll basically go hide it. They stash it for a
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: little while, and I think alligators did it to let
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: the thing actually decay some so that they could pull
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: it apart more easily. I get the impression owls aren't
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: really doing that for that reason. They're they're just there's
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: just such an embarrassment of riches as far as the
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: hunting goes there, you know, stashing it away for a
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: day or two and then coming back and eating it later.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: I think I've seen al pellets in the woods and
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: didn't know what they were. Did you pick it up
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: and rub it between your fingers and sniff it and say,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: I don't know what this is? No, but I think
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: there are times when I've seen a thing and I thought,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: Jesus that a dead mouse like it sure looks like
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: it could be, but it's not shape like one. A
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: giant thigh bone sticking out of it. I bet you anything,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: there's their al pellets. But you're going to be on
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: the lookout now. Yeah, And if you see a bunch
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: of them together, there are um probably several hours owls nearby,
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: because that means it's really good hunting ground. And owls
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: tend to stay near hunting ground. So if you see
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: a bunch of owl pellets, there's a bunch of owls
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: around you, and you just probably look up and look
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: closely and you'll see something that's right. Uh. And as
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: far as their hunting goes, there's a few different methods. Uh.
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: Some are a little lazier than others. I think I
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: would be a perch and pounce guy. And that's the
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: thing here is exactly what it sounds like. They kind
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: of hang out on their perch, do their thing. They
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: look around with those I tubes and when they see something,
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: and only when they see something are they gonna swoop
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: down very silently and snatch it up. Yes, works pretty well.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: There's also quartering flight, which is I guess middling as
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: far as exerting yourself goes. The owl just basically flies
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: around and looks for prey down below. And like we said,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: they have amazing binocular vision, so they they'll see something
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: eventually and then again they swoop down and there goes
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: the prey. Um. And then there's a third called helicoptering,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: which I think I mentioned at the very beginning of
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: the episode. Yeah, that's right. And um, that is the
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: far and away the hardest way for them to hunt
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: because they just basically hover over an area until they
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: can locate the prey and then they swoop down and pouncing,
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: and who knows how long they're going to have to helicopter.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: I actually couldn't find a video, Chuck. It looked really hard.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: But you know how when something happens, the Internet basically
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: pushes everything else out in favor of that one thing. Well,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: there is apparently a firefighting helicopter I think in California once.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Um that was flying in the air and owl flew
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: in and just perched itself inside the helicopter. So if
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: you search owl helicoptering, that's all that comes up. Yeah.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: I have seen birds of prey do this at the
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: lake where they're circling above looking for fish, and then
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: they will, uh, they will stop in place in helicopter
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: for a moment, and that's when you know that they've
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: locked in on something. And I mean that's amazing too,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: how a hawk can see a fish in the water
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: a hundred feet below them. Yeah, and then they dive
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: and then grab the fish. And I always I don't laugh,
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: but I always sort of joke about like what that
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: must be like for the fish to be just swimming
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: along underwater and seconds later be flying a hundred feet
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: above the lake with, you know, being gripped by talents.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine what that does to your day? I know,
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: I've I've I've thought about that many times, and you're right,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: it is hard not to laugh at it because it's
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: just so nuts and they're probably oh my god. Yeah,
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: but at the same time, it's like, Okay, they're about
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: to die, but they're being taken on the most thrilling experience. Yeah,
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: at least they get to go out like that. But yeah,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: it's really it's sad to see like a like a
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: fish just flip flipping back and forth, not like furiously,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: it's more just like kind of anxiously flipping back and forth,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: like what's going on? Almost like if it were a person,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: it would be it's the equivalent person like sitting in
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: a corner with their knees up to their chest, rocking
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: back and forth. That's that's the motion that those fish
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: make when they're in the talents. Yeah, and I've also
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: seen them drop said fish and swoop down and grab
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: it out of the air. Which is also very impressive. Wow,
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: that's just that's playing with really quite a show. But
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: the owl back to the owls, they, like you said,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: they do have those sharp talents, and they spend you know,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: they spend a lot of their time hunting. It's uh.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: When they're not hunting, they're generally resting or you know, roosting,
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: which is resting. And most of the time they'll roost alone,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: but sometimes they share space. Um owls, you know, they
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: can kind of mix it up a little bit. They're
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: generally loaners, but they can also hang out around other owls,
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: especially in like breeding season, they may hang around a
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: little more near other owls. Yeah, they it's called a
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: communal roost um. And there there are some advantages, Like
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: you said, during breeding season, it's easier to find a mate. Um.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: If it's cold out, it's much easier to stay warm
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: in a small little area with a bunch of other owls. Um.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: They apparently will trade information about hunting grounds nearby. And
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: I'm I don't know how they do that. I didn't
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: see how, but I thought that was pretty awesome. And
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: then also they like the more owls there are, the
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: less likely the owls are to be mobbed by other birds. Yeah,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: and that's the thing. It didn't surprise me it happened
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: owls because I've also seen this at the lake with
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: hawks and uh and uh falcons. When you see one
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: of them coming up on a nest like looking for
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: some eggs or baby birds, they will be attacked by
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: tiny little birds. They will just come after them basically
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: and just say, there's a lot of us. We can
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: fly in a lot like quicker zigzaggy patterns, and they
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: just they kind of swarm them and intimidate and confuse
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: and just try and drive them away. Basically. They're like,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: you're like being harassed. Yeah, I'm not touching you. It's
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: pretty cool to see because you know, these big giant
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: birds of prey, it's kind of interesting that they can
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: be thwarted by, you know, a gang of tenacious little birds.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: It is it's it's just so heartwarming to see that
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: because it's I don't think I've ever seen it unsuccessful,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: have you, Like it always works now. It seems like
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: they're always like, all right, fine, I'm out of here.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: Very well. If you're going to be like that about
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: me eating your children, we've gotta take a fish on
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: the ride of his life. Right, you want to take
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: our second break and come back about and talk about
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: making new owls. Sure, I thought you're gonna say making love,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: but same thing. Yeah, Oh okay, Chuck, It's time to
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: talk about owl lovemaking. UM. And one of the things
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: that you are hearing, like you said, in the woods,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: when you're hearing a bunch of crazy owl calls, are
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: owls trying to attract a mate. That's one that basically
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: that and defense are the two reasons that they call.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: From what we can tell, UM, and males will sit
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: there and call through the woods. Because of the frequency
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: of their calls, it's really easy for it to just
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: travel right through vegetation, so it can travel really long distances. UM.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: And then females of that same species will listen out
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: and return the call to males of her species and
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: they might get something going from that point on. Yeah,
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: And like a lot of animals, the males can do
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: a very elaborate sort of courting. Dan's and you know,
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: lots of it's what you might think, a lot of flapping,
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: a lot of sort of chess beating, a lot of
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: diving and climbing, and hey, look at me like I
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: can do all this stuff. They call it a sky dance.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: And then eventually that mail will um you know, wind
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: up in the grasses on the ground and just say
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: what do you think ladies. Uh, My good friend Mike
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: Rino made this incredible video where he records I don't
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: know if he recorded or got recordings of um owl
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: mating calls. I guess he knew he had a randy
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: owl in his backyard and he put this speaker on
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: his deck. And he's a cameraman in the film business,
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: so I'm not sure what he shot at with. But
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: he had a slow motion camera rig going and he
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: got a owl diving onto the speaker in slow motion
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: on his deck and it's one of the most incredible
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: cool shots I've ever seen. And he was like, yeah,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: it's just like one afternoon. Uh, and he and he
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: made it happen. It's very very cool. I mean, he
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: put it on his Facebook years ago. But I'll have
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: to I'll text it and get it and send it
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: to you, Okay from Okay God, thanks man. Yeah, or
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: maybe he'll give you permission to put on the stuff
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: you should know Instagram or something. Yeah. One of the
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: things that I thought was really cool is if that
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: owl had been able to mate with your friends speaker,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: they would have stayed together potentially for life. I love
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: you so right. At the very least, the owl, the
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: male owl would have stuck around for a year throughout
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: the breeding cycle. At the very least, um they are
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: they help um raise the eggs in then later on
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: the hatchlings and the nestlings, which is pretty cool. I
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: think it is cool. Uh. And those mothers might lay
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: I mean average five or six eggs, but they could
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: lay up to ten or eleven eggs over a few days.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: And it really kind of depends on if they're if
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: it's if they think it's a successful area. There's a
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: lot of food around, they think these little outlets might
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: might survive that then they will have more eggs, which
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: is pretty remarkable in itself. And she stays with those
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: eggs until they hatch takes about twenty four to thirty
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: two days and doesn't leave the male. It is kind
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: of sweet. Go gets food and brings it back to
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: the mom so she can eat, although she does lose
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: a little bit of weight because she's probably not eating
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: like she usually does. And then one of my favorite
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: words in nature, the egg tooth is how the little
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: baby outlets cracked themselves out. And then there I guess
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: little fledglings at that point, right. Yeah, There's one other
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: thing before they hatch that I thought was cool. The
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: mom loses the feathers on her belly. She can transfer
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: heat from her body to the eggs more efficiently, which
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: I thought was really cool. So I'm sure she loses
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: weight because she's generating so much heat, Like her metabolism
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: must just go through the roof. That makes sense. So yeah,
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: So the little owl it's hatch, and depending on the species,
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: they are super duper cute or else they are horrific.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: The barn owls in particular horrifying to look at for
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: the first several days before they get feathers. Any baby
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: bird without feathers is not really pleasant to see, but
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: the barn owls in particular are really rough. Um. But
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: then once they start to get those fluffy, little downy
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: feathers there, they begin to be adorable. But for the
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: first like at least couple of weeks, they are totally helpless,
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: eyes closed, Um, they can't fend for themselves in any way.
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: They can't fly, and then more to the point, they
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: can't thermoregulate, so they can't keep themselves warm. They're still
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: totally dependent on their mom to keep them warm and
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: keep them from freezing to death. And then finally, once
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: they cross that threshold where they can thermoregulate on their own,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: they start to like literally branch out from the nest. Yeah,
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: and this it didn't take too long. It's about a week, right,
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: or a little under couple couple of weeks, Okay, So
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: eventually those eyes will open and those little white, downy
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: feathers become a little more gray and brown and uh
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: functional most importantly. But yeah, they'll do two things. They will,
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: uh some of them will go nest on the ground,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: but the ones who the nestlings who stay in the trees,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: they will just literally go to a branch that's nearby
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: and they'll hang out and they wait to fly. The
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: ones on the ground kind of cover themselves up in
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: the grasses and stuff until they can fly, because they're
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: very obviously, very vulnerable at this point. And I imagine
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: any other bird of prey that's sort of wide open
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: for them, right, Yeah, yeah, for sure. But because of this,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: if you find an owl or outlet, I should say
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: on the ground, Um, don't don't take it home, because
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: it hasn't been abandoned. It's probably out exploring um or
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: something were branching. Yeah, just leave it. Not only leave it,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: um if you can put it in like either a
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: low branch or some we're on a shrub and the
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: mom will come back for it. Because I know we've
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: talked about this before somewhere, but handling a bird doesn't
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: cause the mother bird to abandon it. It's an old
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: wives sale. Yeah, just leave the bird there, you know,
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: or put it in a little branch or something, and
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: it will be taken care of from that point on. Yeah.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: I mean my advice has always to just let it alone. Um.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: But if it's looks like it's in harm's way, or
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: if you just can't resist picking up the baby outlet
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: and then and say I'm going to move it because
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: it's not safe, wink wink, And then just get a
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: little little scritch scratch of those downy feathers. Just don't
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: do it for long, right, and try and leave it alone,
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: maybe just long enough to go I love you so much.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: What if the owl said I love you too? There's
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: one other cool thing about baby owls too, right, because
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: of the size of their heads. Uh, I don't know,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: they're Okay, they're they're cute. They are cute. Here's another
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: rival for fact of the podcast. Because baby owl heads
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: are so big, disproportionate or proportionately to their body. Um.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: They don't sleep sitting up, laying down on their bellies,
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: and they look a lot like little baby puppies sleeping. Um,
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: and some of them will. Actually I've seen a picture
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: of a baby owl spluting, like on its belly, spread
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: eagle on on the ground. It's really really cute to see. Yeah, Okay,
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: what do you call it? I don't know, because it's
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: funny when dogs do it. Uh, what do I call that?
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: I don't know what we call it. I'll have to
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: ask Emily, And I think we've got a word for it. Okay, Well,
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: let us know report back, because spluts what I've always
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: gone with. Yeah, I mean, I think every family has
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: her own name for that stuff, right. Sure are you
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: saying that splut is like a scientific term. I don't
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: know if it's scientific, but I feel like it's widespread.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: I don't think it to be coined. It or anything
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: like that. Oh you never know, you mean's quite clever.
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: She is pretty it's the words stuff she says spreads
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: on the internet like wildfire. I believe it, all right,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: So let's hear that's the email I want? Is what
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: do you call an animal? And you know what we're
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: talking about, like a froggy like frog's legs spread on
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: the ground. Ye. All right, So humans, like we said,
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: we love owls. It seems like humans have always been fascinated. Uh,
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: they're very famous. Uh was it the Chuvat Cave in
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: France with all those amazing cave paintings from twenty tho
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: years ago? There is very distinctly an owl drawn, and
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: you know whether it's ancient Greece. Uh, it's just people
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: have always been fascinated with owls, I think. Uh. One
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: reason is there can be very useful, Like if you're
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: a farmer, you want owls around, you know, for pest control. Yeah.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Apparently a single barn owl will eat um fifty pounds
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: of gophers in a year. That's a lot of gophers,
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: because the gopher doesn't a pound. That's a ton of gophers.
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: And then a single barn owl family will eat about
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: three thousand rodents in a four month breeding cycle. And
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: so not only is that like natural and you know,
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: circle of life kind of stuff, the farmer can feel
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: good about that. They'll also save on poison, which is
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: a problem not just for the rodents that the farmer's poison,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: but for the owls that eat the poison rodents. There's
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: a lot of owls that have died incidentally because farmers
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: have used poison bait on their roads to try to
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: control rodents. If you've got owls, you don't have to
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: worry about rodents. So farmers heart owls, that's right, And
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: owls and humans generally hard each other. Uh but I
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: did you know, back when I was on social media
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: years ago, I remember seeing more than one neighborhood boast
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: about joggers being attacked by owls in the neighborhood. And
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: so I looked it up today and it it definitely
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: happens on the rag. Uh. They say, if you're out
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: for an only morning jog um, maybe don't have a
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: ponytail flopping. Tuck your hair up in a hat because
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: people there are a lot of reports no one's ever
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: been like, you know, you might get a little scratched up,
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: so it's not like a fatal thing or anything like that.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: He probably won't even get injured. But those owls are big,
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: and to have one scratching at your head briefly even
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: is probably pretty scary. Yeah, for sure, those crepuscular owls
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: sound like they're trouble. But what's the deal with the
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: wisdom and the owls? Because that's the thing. Since I
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: was a little kid, you always associated owls with having
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: a little graduation cap on right, exactly like the one
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: from the Tusty roll pop commercials or owl from Winning
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: the pooh Um. So there's two schools of thought, and
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: they're not necessarily even mutually exclusive. But one is that
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: the Archaic Greeks about three thousand years ago are the
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: first ones to attribute wisdom to owls by pairing them
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: with Athena, who was one of Zeus's waters and a
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: goddess of wisdom, and her favorite companion was an owl.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: So that some people say, there you go, that's it.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: Other people say, actually, I wonder if people just looked
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: at owls and saw their giant eyes that make them
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: look very intelligent and said that is a very intelligent animal,
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: And maybe that's actually what gave birth to pairing Athena
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: with the owl in the first place. Who knows. Yeah,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, if you've looked at an owl in the face,
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: it feels like they they they are deep thinkers at
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: the very least. But owls, as far as birds go,
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: are medium smart. Is that fair? Yeah, let's say, not
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: super intelligent, not the dumbest B minus students. Maybe sure,
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: they're like they're like I was. I was a beast student.
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: I would say, oh, yeah, good for you. Where were
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: you be minus? I was seized a lot of times.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: And yeah, not until I got to college did I
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: really started selling. Yeah. I made as and bs in
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: high school generally, Oh wow, man, I looked up to
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: people like, you know, you didn't you didn't because I did.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: I would just yeah, I would kind of like hang
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: back and watch you from afar creepily in the library
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: during lunch. Is that you? Yeah? All right, I never
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: knew that was you. That's totally me. Um, yeah, we've
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: known each other for way longer than you realize. Um,
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: that's very creepy. So it's not just the archaic Greeks
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: and us you know alive today that said, you know,
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: owls are very wise or there's something about owls. There's
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: tons of superstitions around the world. And in fact, the
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: Romans said an owl foreshadowed the death of Julius Caesar
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: very famously. I didn't see how like maybe it flew
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: into the Senate or it said like like Caesar lookal
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: or something, but it's very much associated with the death
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: of Caesar. Yeah, and I think a lot of different
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: cultures have different owl sort of folklore, like if if
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: an owl visit you in a dream, like this might happen.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: I think different cultures think different things about owls, but
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: I think it's usually like bad luck, right, Yeah, it depends.
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: The Hindu culture says that that the owl has something
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: to do with Lakshmi, the goddess, and so the owl
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: is a symbol of luck. But you know, like apaches
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: Um said that if you dream of an owl, you're
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: probably going to die. Um. Yeah, it's kind of all
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: over the place. And it makes sense that so many
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: different cultures would have owl superstitions is because they've been
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: around for so long and they're spread all over the world,
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: so so many cultures have interacted with owls and just
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: fallen under their spell. I love it. Shunt me as
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: one me too. I got one other thing, Chuck. There
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: are owl cafes in Japan and you can go to
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: them and hang out with owls, and I've done that,
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: and I did that in Tokyo and it's one of
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: the coolest things I've ever done. And upon researching this,
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: I found that you are not supposed to do that.
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: Writing an elephant kind of been in a different way.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: Like owls are super sociable. They're totally chilled with humans.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: They're not scared or anything like that, and they're generally
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: treated well. But most owl species are nocturnal, and you're
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: going to the owl cafe during the day in most cases,
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: so they're forcing the owls to You're making the owl
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: stay awake when it otherwise would normally be sleeping. And
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: that's not good for anybody. I got you, So I'm
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: sorry to all the owls. I just wanted to confess
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: that it's very big of you. Thank you. Uh Well,
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: since Chuck said that's very big of me, I say
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: it's time for a listener mail. I'm gonna call this
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: correction on the vasectomes epp uh and a pretty important one. Oh, yeah, yeah, Yeah,
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you're doing this. I know we got this
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: right on the condom episode, but here we go. Hey, guys,
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: in the episode, you compared vasectomes to other birth control uh.
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: And although vasectomes are amazingly effective, I think your statement
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: underestimates the effective effectiveness of other birth controlled methods. You
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: talk about condoms as affect them effective, meaning there's a
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: fifteen percent chance of getting pregnant every time you use
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: a condom. However, birth control effectiveness is calculated by like
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: likelihood getting pregnant over a year using only that method.
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: If there was really a fifteen percent chance getting pregnant
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: every time you used a condom, the compounded chance of
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: getting pregnant over one year would be almost a percent. Uh.
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: I guess that's if you're, you know, living your best life. Sure,
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: such a huge fan of the podcast. As a regent,
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: as recently graduated bioengineer, I couldn't pass up this opportunity
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: to share the knowledge of probability and science on an
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: issue I deeply care about. Thanks for all the amazing
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: shows over the years. That is from Mina and we
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: heard from a lot of people on this and I
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: know that was just sort of a what I call
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: a verbal typo because we know that condoms are. It's
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: more like it's like effective, right. I I was totally
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: seduced by that that status, so I bought it. Fully,
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: I'm not even going to play that's okay. Yeah, we
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: have a episode on condoms where we where we get
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: it right. Yeah. I wonder how many people are like,
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: I'm not using those things anymore because over the course
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: of the year, there's almost a chance of becoming pregnant.
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: Oh I don't know about that. Well, thanks a lot,
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: Mina and everybody else who wrote in. That was a
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: really important one. And Chuck, I'm glad you chose that
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: one for a listener mail. And if you want to
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: be like Mina and tell us something very important, we
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: love that kind of stuff. You can send it to
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: us in an email to Stuff podcast at I heart
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: radio dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a production
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio,
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
• 51:46
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