why-animals-do-the-thing:junecsea:becausebirds:Dutch “Cuddly Owl” finally caught on video. This bird

why-animals-do-the-thing:junecsea:becausebirds:Dutch “Cuddly Owl” finally caught on video. This bird has been cuddling the citizens of this town for a while. It likes to land and stomp on people’s heads.Watch the video@why-animals-do-the-thing Why is it doing this? Is it safe?From what I can tell (based on the date of the original post, the link to which is now broken), this is the Eurasian Eagle Owl that was terrorizing people in the Dutch town of Purmerend. It wasn’t just “cuddling” people - it was swooping at them and actually seriously injuring people. The owl attacked a trainer and an athlete who were out for a run (leaving one of them with head wounds that required stitches) and was thought to be responsible for almost 50 attacks. So no, it’s not safe at all. While owls use their feet mostly for restraining / suffocating their prey (as opposed to other birds of prey, which use their talons to actually cause injury while hunting), they’re still powerful birds capable of causing a lot of damage. Here’s a photo of the feet of a Eurasian Eagle Owl, to give you an idea of what people were having hit them or land on their heads:(Photo Credit: Abernathy’s Rabbitry)As quoted by Buzzfeed: “It was like having a brick laced with nails thrown at your head,” said owl victim Niels Verkooijen. It wasn’t clear why the owl was attacking people, but it’s absolutely unusual behavior for the species. It was thought by experts that the bird “was either raised in captivity and associated humans with food, or had heightened hormone levels because of the start of the breeding season.” The town eventually had him trapped by a falconer, and he was transferred to a bird sanctuary, where it was determined he had probably been captive-raised and illegally released. Luckily, he appears to have integrated well into a large aviary at the sanctuary that also houses other owls. So while this video clip may make it look cute and funny, this is an animal behaving abnormally because of human influence and hurting people in the process. There was a huge outcry for him to be released once he was captured, but it was determined that his aggressive behavior was too extreme - and associated with people - for him to be allowed to live out of a restricted setting. -- source link
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