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I think the real determining factors involved in situation assessment for animals are being dismissed, forgotten, or just aren't understood by many. Most animals (predatory or otherwise) tend to ignore what they do not perceive to be threats. They tend to tense up or flee when threatened or if they feel that their ability to survive is compromised (or in this case their ability to hunt). Great Greys for example, will generally move if you are loud, leave your car running, bang into something, talk continously to someone etc. All of these activities impair its ability to hear which impair its ability to hunt. Northern Hawk-Owl (NHOW) behaviour seems a bit more erratic, or just less predictable, as i've had NHOW's that flew as soon as a car pulls up, and i've had NHOW's that would stay on the same perch for hours (One this weekend was on the same perch in the same position 3 hours after I first viewed it. I wondered if the Owl ever moved, or if it just liked that spot and said to hell with the people looking at me, i'm staying here!) Their responses more than likely have nothing to do with a perceived "knowledge" of what a human or a car or a train or whatever is. Much more likely is that their responses are based on perceived threats or disutrbances, or lack thereof. If I am sitting quietly in a car which is turned off, and thus I am not causing any disturbance to habitat, or any noise, I am perceived as a) not a disturbance which inhibits hunting and b) not a threat to wellbeing and thus I am ignored. If, however, I bump into something and make a loud sound, instantly the Owl stares right at me, because now I have made a disturbance which at that moment in time either a) inhibitted hunting or b) disturbed the Owl (or any other animal you may want to relate this to) or c) startled the Owl causing it to perceive a threat. Several of us this winter have had some pretty magical experiences with Great Greys which would seem to prove out these facts. I have had on a few occasions Owls fly to within a few feet of me, perch on a sign/tree/whatever, and successfully catch and eat a vole within 6 feet of me. Many of these times the Owls flew from farther away to a distance closer to me. To me, this signals a level of comfort and a measure of trust. The Owls, in each case, were within 20-25 feet of me, knew I was there, and yet flew closer to me after a period of time and continued their daily activities, whether it be hunting (as in the above noted instances) or even just napping/resting/roosting/whatever. The Owl would have flown off to a further tree to hunt if it felt a) disturbed, or b) endangered. These same reactions can be applied almost unilaterally to most all bird species. If you approach a bird to view it, and it flushes/flies away, you have disturbed it, and it felt its safety was endagered and thus it flew to what it felt was a safe distance. Some species of birds are more fearless than others. Some are much more apt to flush and fly away. Even within the Owl kingdom this phenomenon is very well known. Long-eared Owls, for example, are generally very skittish and flighty (Note how absolutely zero Long-eared Owl roosts ever make it to the list server? Find that interesting? Would you also find interesting how many Long-eared Owls were found roosting in MN in the past? I bet you would....and you'd be surprised too probably...). Some real knowledge and patience is required to view them and not disturb/flush them. However, Northern Saw-Whet Owls, for example (and Great Grey's as well as Northern Hawk-Owls fit into this category) are pretty fearless. Hummingbirds as an entire family of birds are amongst the "fearless" ones as well, unless they see something they feel is a predator, at which time they disappear en masse and chatter up a storm! But if you've ever been to anywhere in the tropics, or even to SE Arizona, you've probably had the pretty amazing experience of having hummingbirds zoom by your head and even maybe had their wings clip you on occasion, as they have little fear of people (we aren't perceived as a threat) The above sorts of things should be considered when one is trying to understand animal behavior. Chris Fagyal Senior Software Engineer United Defense, L.P. ASD Fridley, MN (763) 572-5320 [email protected] --=_3E1E96CB.B0D1B116 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1477" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY style="MARGIN-TOP: 2px; FONT: 8pt Tahoma; MARGIN-LEFT: 2px">I think the real determining factors involved in situation assessment for animals are being dismissed, forgotten, or just aren't understood by many. Most animals (predatory or otherwise) tend to ignore what they do not perceive to be threats. They tend to tense up or flee when threatened or if they feel that their ability to survive is compromised (or in this case their ability to hunt). Great Greys for example, will generally move if you are loud, leave your car running, bang into something, talk continously to someone etc. All of these activities impair its ability to hear which impair its ability to hunt. Northern Hawk-Owl (NHOW) behaviour seems a bit more erratic, or just less predictable, as i've had NHOW's that flew as soon as a car pulls up, and i've had NHOW's that would stay on the same perch for hours (One this weekend was on the same perch in the same position 3 hours after I first viewed it. I wondered if the Owl ever moved, or if it just liked that spot and said to hell with the people looking at me, i'm staying here!) <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Their responses more than likely have nothing to do with a perceived "knowledge" of what a human or a car or a train or whatever is. Much more likely is that their responses are based on perceived threats or disutrbances, or lack thereof. If I am sitting quietly in a car which is turned off, and thus I am not causing any disturbance to habitat, or any noise, I am perceived as a) not a disturbance which inhibits hunting and b) not a threat to wellbeing and thus I am ignored. If, however, I bump into something and make a loud sound, instantly the Owl stares right at me, because now I have made a disturbance which at that moment in time either a) inhibitted hunting or b) disturbed the Owl (or any other animal you may want to relate this to) or c) startled the Owl causing it to perceive a threat.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Several of us this winter have had some pretty magical experiences with Great Greys which would seem to prove out these facts. I have had on a few occasions Owls fly to within a few feet of me, perch on a sign/tree/whatever, and successfully catch and eat a vole within 6 feet of me. Many of these times the Owls flew from farther away to a distance closer to me. To me, this signals a level of comfort and a measure of trust. The Owls, in each case, were within 20-25 feet of me, knew I was there, and yet flew closer to me after a period of time and continued their daily activities, whether it be hunting (as in the above noted instances) or even just napping/resting/roosting/whatever. The Owl would have flown off to a further tree to hunt if it felt a) disturbed, or b) endangered. These same reactions can be applied almost unilaterally to most all bird species. If you approach a bird to view it, and it flushes/flies away, you have disturbed it, and it felt its safety was endagered and thus it flew to what it felt was a safe distance. Some species of birds are more fearless than others. Some are much more apt to flush and fly away. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Even within the Owl kingdom this phenomenon is very well known. Long-eared Owls, for example, are generally very skittish and flighty (Note how absolutely zero Long-eared Owl roosts ever make it to the list server? Find that interesting? Would you also find interesting how many Long-eared Owls were found roosting in MN in the past? I bet you would....and you'd be surprised too probably...). Some real knowledge and patience is required to view them and not disturb/flush them. However, Northern Saw-Whet Owls, for example (and Great Grey's as well as Northern Hawk-Owls fit into this category) are pretty fearless. Hummingbirds as an entire family of birds are amongst the "fearless" ones as well, unless they see something they feel is a predator, at which time they disappear en masse and chatter up a storm! But if you've ever been to anywhere in the tropics, or even to SE Arizona, you've probably had the pretty amazing experience of having hummingbirds zoom by your head and even maybe had their wings clip you on occasion, as they have little fear of people (we aren't perceived as a threat)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The above sorts of things should be considered when one is trying to understand animal behavior.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>Chris Fagyal<BR>Senior Software Engineer<BR>United Defense, L.P. ASD<BR>Fridley, MN <BR>(763) 572-5320<BR><A href="mailto:[email protected]";>[email protected]</A></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML> --=_3E1E96CB.B0D1B116--
