doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com OT -- ruthless

I pulled into my driveway about an hour ago, maybe 1 1/2 hrs. after dark, and saw something large on the ground just above the terrace in my front yard. As I continued up the driveway and got nearer I saw it was a large bird, and it tried to fly with something in it's grasp. It couldn't, dropped it, and flew off into the night. I could see as it did that it was large owl, which I assume was a Great Horned Owl, as I have been hearing one near my house at night lately.

I saw that it left something on the ground when it flew off so I stopped my truck and walked around to see what it had killed. I was stunned when I picked up the headless body, and in the dim light from my yard lights, saw it was another raptor. At first I thought it was a big red-tailed hawk, and then noticed that it was headless. I looked on the ground and saw a big ball of feathers, which I picked up. To my utter surprise it was the head of another really big owl. I tossed body and head over in the back of my truck. I'll look more closely at it tomorrow morning, to determine what species of owl it is.

This Great Horned Owl had killed another big owl in my front yard, cut it's head off, and was about to have supper, I guess, when I drove in. Amazing what things I see out here in the sticks.

Anybody else ever seen a raptor kill another raptor for food? Or, maybe to eliminate the competition?

SRH

I saw a golden eagle pluck a bald eagle out of a tree and throw it in a river during the Alewife run up here in Maine.

They are just feathered dinosaurs. They don't think much about what they kill. They just want dinner.

Here is an eagle owl (a bit bigger than a GHO) killing some sort of smaller raptor.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ol4rbYPYQc[/video]

Gordon Gullion�s research showed that predator on predator feeding increased when prey populations plummeted. Which would seem to demonstrate just the opposite, they do prefer grouse and red squirrels when they are available, to eating each other.

Stan, I saw a great horned owl take a small house cat at twilight, a few dogs ago. The cat had a pink collar on, I always wondered if that made for an interesting pellet out of that bird.

Best,
Ted

Not all predation is about food. Esp. within species.

Ted, I had an owl take a house cat off my front porch once, at night. We were inside watching Little House On The Prairie, and when it occurred it was such a ruckus I grabbed a pistol before looking out the front door. Nothing left but some yellow fur under the rocking chair. Never saw the cat again.

Plenty of prey species here. Grey squirrels by the score in my yard all day long.

SRH

OK, so, within two postings we have gone from they don�t think much about what they kill, just wanting to have dinner, to rather shrewd behavior of eliminating competition. I�m willing to believe that happens, but, would tend to believe it is a very, very rare thing. Most predators probably expect a meal at the end of the effort it takes to overcome a small prey animal, and a least a primitive notion that chances of success against another, equal predator are less.
Stan�s owl would more than likely have begun consuming her kill (the big ones are females) had Stan not shown up.
They may eliminate competition. But, except in a case like this one, I�d wager there is always a meal at the end of it. The calories it takes to pull that off are too precious to not replace.

Best,
Ted

Ted, lots of territorial species fight. Not always to the death. Wolves are a classic example of where it is quite common however. Lions as well. Even chimps. I don't know that GHOs do that, but it would not surprise me much.

In entirely different circumstances, about 50% of the death of juvenile prairie dogs in some species and populations is through cannibalism, though they are not always consumed, which brings about a lot of speculation as to the evolutionary cause of it. Most cases are of females killing the litters of other females in a coteri

I'd say cutting they other's head off is pretty much a fight to the death.

SRH

From Wikipedia - the source of all "facts"
Territoriality appears to place a limit on the number of breeding pairs in a given area. Individuals prevented from establishing a territory live a silent existence as "floaters". Radio-telemetry revealed that such floaters concentrate along boundaries of established territories. At Kluane in Yukon, incursions into neighboring territories were observed only twice�by females when neighboring female had died or emigrated, suggesting that territorial defense may be sex specific. At least four dead great horned owls in Kluane were apparently killed by others of their own species in territorial conflicts.[29] Owls killed by other horned owls are sometimes cannibalized, although the origin of the killing may have been territorial aggression.[65] Northern populations occasionally erupt south during times of food shortage,[66] but there is no annual migration even at the northern limits of the great horned owl's range.[29]


We have had a snow white owl on our property two winters back. Illegal immigrant from a special population somewhere in Canada that I have forgotten.