One Man's Owl by Bernd Heinrich;

Author:Bernd Heinrich;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

August 24

The summer is over, and it is time now to face our responsibilities to Bubo. If he had learned to hunt, we could just leave him here. He might even still be near Kaflunk next year when we come back.

Recovery records of banded great horned owls on file with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service show that these owls usually remain near their hatching and breeding places throughout the year. Two other banding studies of great horned owls also confirm that territories are held year-round, but if dispersal is necessary because of a dwindling food supply, then the burden of dispersal falls on the young. In Alberta, during years of snowshoe-hare decline, the owls switch their diet to ruffed grouse rather than move away; they also raise fewer young or don't breed at all. If prey switching and reproductive strategy still don't result in a balanced energy budget, the owls may move far away. Dispersals of up to 837 miles from the natal nest have been recorded.

There is about a 50-50 chance, however, that the young will not survive their first year. They suffer the highest mortality. Studies show that first-year mortality of great horned owls in the wild varies from 46 to 55 percent, and the oldest wild birds live for thirteen or fourteen years. These data are based on several thousand banded birds and nearly eight hundred recoveries. Similar results have been obtained from a population of tawny owls banded in Belgium, where the individuals also stayed in the same territory, although they did not breed every year. One banded individual lived to the ripe old age of nineteen.

The ecological arguments for releasing Bubo into the wild are weak, because great horned owl populations are limited by food resources and habitat. Having found a piece of real estate with a plentiful food supply, an owl may still have to fight a prior occupant for the right to keep it.

Truth to tell, Bubo is no longer just any owl to me. He reminds me of the fox that appeared to the little prince in Antoine de Saint Exupéry's The Little Prince. The little prince had said the fox was pretty to look at, but the fox replied he still could not be played with because he has not yet been tamed. To be tamed, the fox said, means to establish ties. If the prince would tame him, then the fox would no longer be like a hundred thousand other foxes. If he would tame him, they would need each other, and each would be unique to the other. Bubo had been tamed by me and I had been tamed by him, and now he is unique to me, as I am to him. He is no longer a statistical owl. Whether or not he goes back to the wild makes little ecological difference: if he is not there, some other owl who would otherwise have died will take his place. My main concern, then, is how will this

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