Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!maverick.ksu.ksu.edu!unmvax!nmt.edu!john
From: john@nmt.edu (John Shipman)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Bird feeding Station
Summary: Cat lovers hit 'n' now
Message-ID: <1991Apr17.072124.3028@nmt.edu>
Date: 17 Apr 91 07:21:24 GMT
References: <1991Apr15.225115.3695@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov> <1991Apr16.191709.29728@NPIRS.Purdue.EDU>
Organization: Zoological Data Processing
Lines: 22

Sheri Hastings (hastings@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov):
+--
| We already have some horned owls nesting (I think) in some big
| canary pines. Can anyone tell me anything about these birds?
+--

Tom Fisher (tfisher@NPIRS.Purdue.EDU):
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| They love to eat small animals - maybe even cats :-)  :-( !
+--

I've heard that Great Horned Owls regularly catch well-fed suburban
cats in the wealthy Bay Area suburb of Los Altos Hills.

Another interesting fact about this species of owl is that it is
*the* major predator of skunks.  Owls don't have much of a sense
of smell, skunks are a plentiful resource, and both of them are
nocturnal.  Some museum study skins of Great Horned Owl are still
quite fragrant after several decades.
-- 
John Shipman/Zoological Data Processing/Socorro, NM/john@jupiter.nmt.edu
``Let's go outside and commiserate with nature.''  --Dave Farber