Our overarching zoological mission is to foster conservation awareness and to impart action on our park guests to preserve wild animals and wild places. [32] Ground nests have also been recorded in the midst of tall grasses in Florida and in the midsts of brushy spots on the desert ground. The great horned owl can take up residence in trees that border all manner of deciduous, coniferous, and mixed forests, tropical rainforests, pampas, prairie, mountainous areas, deserts, subarctic tundra, rocky coasts, mangrove swamp forests, and some urban areas. This can be reddish, brown, or gray in color (depending on geographical and racial variation) and is demarked by a dark rim culminating in bold, blackish side brackets. Great horned owls may behead large prey before taking it to its nest or eating perch. The structure of the great horned owl wing also allows it to fly at a very low speeds for the size of the species, as slow as 2 miles per hour when they are gliding on breezes. [138] A similar focus on rats was found in populations in urban parks in Seattle. 1987. Two hare species, the black-tailed jackrabbit and snowshoe hare, are so important to the owls as a food source that the local owl populations sharply rise and fall in sync with the hares' cyclical population trends. and night snakes (Hypsiglena torquata) to venomous species like cottonmouths (Agkistrodon piscivorus) and prairie rattlesnakes (Crotalus virdis) and formidable, large species like common king snakes (Lampropeltis getula) and black rat snakes (Pantherophis obsoletus), which in mature specimens can rival the owl in mass and sheer predatory power. Bechard, Marc J. and Josef K. Schmutz. With its long, earlike tufts, intimidating yellow-eyed stare, and deep hooting voice, the Great Horned Owl is the quintessential owl of storybooks. [66], Typically, great horned owls are highly sedentary, often capable of utilizing a single territory throughout their mature lives. Eyes are yellow, with blackish edged eyelids. While galliforms are widely reported, the few cases where great horned owls locally turn to birds as the primary food source over mammals, these may often be local responses to the abundance of breeding water birds or concentrations of roosting water birds, since they tend to roost in relatively open spots. They will only follow cues when conditioned from an early age but rarely with the same level of success seen in some diurnal birds of prey trained for falconry or entertainment, although this does not necessarily correlate with intelligence as posited by Errington. [106] Smaller species of mammalian carnivore, such as ringtail (Bassariscus astutus), American mink (Neovison vison), black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) and various other small mustelids (Mustela ssp. [136] Road kills are sometimes opportunistically eaten. [100], Other mammals are taken readily as well. [7][16] The tail, being relatively short as is typical of most owls, is 175 to 252 mm (6.9 to 9.9 in) long. [12][13] Depending on subspecies, maximum weight can reach 2,503 g (5.518 lb). [6] It is less common in the more extreme areas of the Americas. Normally several perches are used to mark occupied territory or to attract a female. Errington, P. L., F. Hamerstrom, and F. N. Hamerstrom, Jr. 1940. [5] The capture of the hatchlings of very large reptiles such as loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) and American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) by great horned owls has been reported, in both cases likely when the baby reptiles are attempting to make their way to the security of water. The extent of predation on other owls depends on the habitat preferences of the other species. [59] They are generally rare in non-tidal wetland habitat,[60] and are replaced in the high Arctic tundra by snowy owls. 1984. 69. In most of North America, courtship is from October to December and mates are chosen by December to January. Birds are usually considerably secondary in the diet but outnumber the mammals in the diet by diversity, as more than 250 species have been killed in North America alone. [83][91][92] Other rodents recorded as secondary prey in North America include flying squirrels (Glaucomys ssp. [6][34] The great horned and Eurasian eagle-owls may in fact be conspecifics, based on similarities in life history, geographic distribution, and appearance. 1993. Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia, 14(2), 101-115. While the true nature/purpose of the ear tufts that are present on the great horned owl is unknown, researchers agree that the tufts do not play any role in the hearing ability of the owl. [12] Similarly, owls may track down sleeping grouse, which also roost in vegetation but more openly than quail. [4] Even the burrow entrances of American badger and coyote dens have reportedly been used as nests, in spite of the inherent risk of sharing space with such potentially dangerous co-inhabitants. [116] Occasionally, domestic carnivores are also prey. [171] In northwestern Utah and north-central Alberta, egg-laying can be 3–4 weeks earlier than usual when food is abundant and weather is favorable.