What Would a Screech-Owl Want With a Blind Snake?
Keeping live snakes in the nest can benefit owlets. Here's how.
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Transcript
Screech-owls are cute鈥攚ith stubby little bodies, poky little ear tufts, huge round eyes, and what looks like an expression of perpetual surprise on their face. Come nightfall, though, and they鈥檙e every bit as ferocious as they are cute, hunting down crickets, beetles and small rodents. But that鈥檚 not all . . .
Usually, the owls kill their prey before bringing it home. But if they鈥檙e lucky enough to capture the little, worm-like reptiles known as blind snakes, they deliver them to the chicks alive and wriggling.
Some are gulped down immediately, but others have time to escape by burrowing beneath the wood chips, pellets, and other litter strewn across the floor of the nest. These survivors feed on the insect larvae they find there鈥攍arvae that would otherwise parasitize the owl nestlings.
A study conducted by Baylor University scientists found that screech-owl chicks grew faster and healthier in nests kept vermin-free by these . . . domesticated . . . blind snakes. Now that鈥檚 what I call service.
Check out the Baylor study .
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Credits:
Bird sounds provided by at the , Ithaca, New York. Eastern Screech-Owl [107366] by Wilbur L. Hershberger. Eastern Screech-Owl [166554] by Robert C. Faucett. Eastern Screech-Owl [4457] by Lewis F. Piersall.
BirdNote's theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Dominic Black
Written by Rick Wright
漏 2015 Tune In to Nature.org November 2017 Narrator: Michael Stein