With Its Amazing Sight, the Long-Eared Owl Sees a Different World Than Humans

All species in the animal kingdom for sure have their own unique feature that makes them special. For long-eared owls, it is definitely their amazing vision.

If you happen to be an owl's prey, your life will probably be short-lived. An Asio otus long-eared owl is an excellent night hunter with low-light owl sight and superb hearing. Its flame-colored eyes on a neck that can rotate through 270 degrees gives less chance for prey to escape from the winged predator.

Adult long-eared owls can detect, capture, and bring five voles home to their brood in a span of 20-minute period. They typically prey on voles, small rodents that are related to lemmings and hamsters. In the low vegetation where they hunt, you would have assumed the place was abundant with voles, but it is doubtful that the human eye can detect them through the thick, knee-high grass.

Common Behaviors of Long-eared Owls

If it's not yet obvious, long-eared owls are arboreal and nocturnal in nature, spying their prey in a distance from tree branches. It is easy for them to move from one place to another during seasonal movements between breeding and wintering grounds. While they are colonial in nature, they enjoy living alone in solitude.

Have I mentioned that their necks can rotate through 270 degrees? This mechanism enables them to use their eye like a telescope. Journals have described long-eared owls to have seen the world differently than humans, incorporated with their laser-like acuity of hearing and 'soft flight mode like the warm breeze'.

Like other animals, these owls are also preys themselves. Adult long-eared owls are preyed upon by raptors such as great-horned and barred owls, golden eagles, red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks, northern goshawks, eagle owls, common buzzards, and peregrine falcons. Adult females were once predated by raccoons, while smaller nestling owls are vulnerable to predation from porcupines, bull snakes, American crows, black-billed magpies, and several hawk species.

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Conservation and Economic Importance

While the long-eared owl population is hard to track, records suggest that their number within U.S is 'largely stable'. However, there have been declines in the local states including New Jersey, Minnesota and California. The possible causes for the decline are starvation, predation, and habitat loss through destruction of vegetation. Other times, rare cases of adult owls are being killed by cars or shot by hunters in the U.S.

At this time, long-eared owls are protected under CITES Appendix II and the U.S. Migratory Bird Act. While they are not federally endangered or threatened in the United States, they are considered threatened in the state of Michigan.

Long-eared owls brought economic importance to humans by controlling populations of rodents that are considered to be agricultural pests. So far, their species have not imposed negative effect on humans.

One might think, what is the owl's wildlife purpose? Quoting Country diary on twitter, "Owls help me see that I see so little, that we are party to something vaster than we know. Owls make the world richer, wider and deeper for us all."

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