Page 9 - Martin Downs Bulletin - November '23

Martin Downs, Page 9

Book review

What An Owl Knows: The New only a few inches own awe and appreciation for the skills and natural physical
attributes that these extraordinary creatures have evolved
Science Of The World’s Most high, to the massive over the 100 million years since they have existed on this
Eurasian eagle-owl
Enigmatic Birds that can take down a planet is clear from first page to last. The following brief
passages serve as examples, some of the text has been omitted
deer – or Blakiston’s
fish owl, the world’s for lack of space here, and been replaced by ellipses (…):
By Nils A. Shapiro biggest owl, the size “With a head designed for listening … the flat, gray
Author Jennifer of a fire hydrant with head disk of a Great Gray Owl is like one huge external
Ackerman could just as a 6-foot wingspan! ear, a feathered satellite dish for collecting sound … The
well have retitled her The recipient of facial disk in owls that hunt primarily by sound is outlined
book What We Know numerous awards with a ruff of stiff interlocking feathers that capture sound
About Owls, packed as it and fellowships and waves and channel them toward the ears, like people
is with many hundreds of author of five earlier cupping their hands around their ears. Feathers in the
fascinating facts about the successful books – back of the disk direct high-pitched sounds toward the
260 owl species to be found including The Bird ears, so the owl hears less noise from its surroundings
throughout almost every Way and national and can focus on prey cues.
continent, from the tiny elf bestseller The Genius “(The owl) can even change the shape of the disk by
owl, the size of a pine cone of Birds – Ackerman’s using muscles at the base of the feathers, shifting from
a resting state to the alertness of an active hunt. It’s
remarkable to watch an owl do this, adjust its facial disk
when it hears something interesting. It’s like the disk itself
is a kind of aperture, an ‘eye,’ that opens wide to let in
more sound and bounce it toward the ears.”
Note: The use of the term “ears,” in owls, even in such
species names as long-eared owls or short-eared owls, is
confusing. The actual ears used by owls for listening are
vertical slits on the sides of their heads.
Owls are nocturnal, hunting at night for prey that
includes most commonly – depending on the owl species
and size – rodents, insects, mice, rabbits, squirrels,
possums, lemmings in the case of snowy owls, and other
small mammals and birds. Because of their incredible
hearing, and the fact that the unique design of their wings
enables them to swoop down on prey in complete silence,
they are among the natural world’s most efficient hunters.
They do not even have to be able to see their prey in order
to be successful!
“A Great Gray Owl is listening, always listening. Its
head rotates to glean the source of a sound. Its ears are so
acutely tuned, it can discern the faint footfall of a shrew
in the forest, the wingbeat of a Canada Jay, the muffled
rustle of a vole tunneling deep beneath the snow. It will
fly to the spot, hover over it, head facing down toward the
sound, then just before impact thrust its legs forward and
punch through snow more than a foot and a half deep to
seize its prey.”
But Ackerman has equal respect for the professional
scientists, students and volunteers who often dedicate
years of their lives under the most incredibly difficult
physical and stressful conditions worldwide, studying
every aspect of owls’ lives in order to build the base
of knowledge that will help protect the survival of owl
species at a time when many are at risk of extinction due
to climate change and other human influences.
One chapter, Who Gives a Hoot, includes the
PUT YOUR MIND AT EASE experiences of researcher Karla Bloem, who devoted
an extensive amount of time studying variations in owl
language at just one site:
A quick screening can detect lung cancer “After hundreds of hours of meticulous observation,
Bloem managed to characterize and describe fifteen
at its earliest stage. separate vocalizations: six sorts of hoots, four types of
chitters, and five kinds of squawks, including an alarm
squawk like an eerie shriek. She also noted that the owls
Did you know lung cancer can be detected at its earliest and have nonvocal communication. When they’re fearful or
most treatable stage? The team at Cleveland Clinic Martin Health agitated, they’ll hiss or clack their bills.”
Perhaps the major reason why owls are so popular
uses low-dose CT screenings to detect lung cancer earlier. worldwide is their most instantly recognizable feature
That means our experts, from pulmonologists and oncologists to as the only bird whose big round eyes face forward, like
thoracic surgeons, can provide patients with nonsurgical ours, in the front of their faces. All other birds’ eyes are
situated on the sides of their heads.
and surgical treatments sooner. But unlike we humans, who can move our eyes left and
right with a limited degree of peripheral vision in order to see
what is happening on each side of us, an owl’s eyes are fixed
facing forward. However, they make up for that by being able
to swivel their heads around in a way that we cannot:
Find out if you need a lung cancer screening. “While it’s a myth that owls can rotate their heads from
a starting point facing forward, some species, like Great
ClevelandClinicFlorida.org/LungScreening Grays and Barn Owls, can turn their heads almost three
quarters of the way around, 270 degrees – three times the
twisting flexibility humans possess … that an owl’s neck can
move swiftly and smoothly through those 270 degrees of
rotation is due to some clever adaptations, a loose S shape
that gives it flexibility, and a system of bones and blood
vessels that minimizes disruption of blood flow through the
neck to the eye and the brain when the head rotates.”
And I haven’t even touched upon an owl’s vision, with
its ultraviolet spectrum.
There is so much more here to enjoy, and from which
to learn. Plus 50 black-and-white photos and a section of
full-color photos that add greatly in helping you to identify
different owl species.