Urban Owls

Its early in the morning in the university town of Stellenbosch, just before dawn. I'm awoken by a commotion, and this is not from some druken university student returning from a night out of partying, but that of call of a Spotted Eagle-Owl (Bubo africanus).

I peer out of my bedroom window and perched on the chimney was the owl. My camera was not at hand, so I used my cellphone to snap this, not so fantastic, shot.

This serves an indication of a hidden world at play. Nocturnal animals have found their niche, one way or another, in the urban environment. Of the 12 species of owls in South Africa only two, the Spotted Eagle-Owl (Bubo africanus) and Barn Owl (Tyto alba), have adapted to living in the urban environment. This is due to buildings, especially older brick buildings, serving as potential nesting and roosting sites, and the build up of food waste which attracts rats which the owls prey on.

Cropped version

To see an owl might be hoot to some, but to others they represent harbingers of doom. Owls symbolize different things to different cultures.  The ancient Greeks for example had owls as a symbol of wisdom and was an emblem to the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena, while to others, owls carry a more sinister tone.

In South Africa, especially in townships, the presence of an owl is generally met with the death of the owl. This is due to the local superstitious belief that the owls are messenger of eminent death or was sent by some dark force. When in reality it is the growing rodent population that are attracting the owls to these areas.

Owls can serve as a green solution to the control of rodent populations in the urban environment. Provided the right poison is used for the rats and mice as some can indirectly kill the owls. But there is also a necessary need to educate the locals towards the need of owls and curb the superstitious belief to ensure that owls can live in harmony with humans.

I had the luck to have a previous encounter with a Spotted Eagle-Owl before. Taken near Gansbaai, Western Cape, South Africa.