this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2024
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For owls that are superb.
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Neat video!
If anyone is wondering, this owl would have indeed eaten this turkey if things had gone differently.
WildTurkeyLab: Predation from Great-horned Owls
Photo of GHO with a fallen turkey. (Nothing graphic, but still a dead turkey, so I spoiler tagged it.)
That's amazing. A tiny owl weighing only a few ounces eating a turkey.
The GHO is one of the largest North American owls, and while the turkey is still bigger, the owls are built to take down animals much larger than one would expect.
Some quick stats I grabbed from Google:
Here's a picture I feel accurately depicts their size. Lots have the owl closer to the camera to look bigger, but this is pretty realistic.
They also have tremendous grip strength of about 350 to 500 psi, where your typical large scary dog is about 250 psi.