Nifty Owl Video

Nothin' geo-flavored in this post: just a completely kick-ass owl video that I recently stumbled across. The video is from some Japanese TV show, but here's a brief run-down, at least as far as I can tell from the images and different critters being shown.

The owl being shown is (probably) a Common Scops Owl (Otus scops) from South Africa. First thing you'll notice, is that it is cute as hell. However, if you stick with the video a little while, they get to the point of showing that this little guy has some awesome defense/predator avoidance strategies. Here's the video:



When the little Scops owl is confronted with a barn owl (which is just a LITTLE bigger than he is), it really puffs out in an attempt to make itself look huge. But when it's confronted with the much larger and more intimidating Eagle Owl (complete with the Imperial March as it's theme song), it instead elongates itself, producing a much slimmer, narrower profile. According to this info I found at ARKive, it seems like this is a strategy meant to make the Common Scops look more like a twig or branch!

Neat!