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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
When you think about predators that kill adult wild turkeys, you often think about mammals such as coyotes and bobcats. And although those are certainly predators of adults, we see consistent predation on adults from great-horned owls.
Interestingly, these owls typically kill adults at the roost site, and they kill toms more often than hens.
I suspect that in many cases, toms in particular start gobbling in the morning and horned owls can locate and attack toms while they’re roosting and distracted.
Evidence at kill sites is distinctive, in that owls appear to hit the bird and carry them to the ground 20+ yards away from the roost tree – so there is a trail of feathers from the roost tree to the carcass. The owls typically remove the bird’s head, and then remove skin and meat from the breast and legs.
But we’ve also seen instances where the bird was killed and no meat was removed, suggesting that the predation event was not directed at food acquisition, which is interesting.
The take home is, great horned owls are a relevant predator of adult wild turkeys and leave distinctive pieces of evidence at the scene.
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:
Adult great horned owls range in length from 43 to 64 cm (17 to 25 in), with an average of 55 cm (22 in), and possess a wingspan of 91 to 153 cm (3 ft 0 in to 5 ft 0 in), with an average of 122 cm (48 in). Females are somewhat larger than males.[15][22] Mean body weight is 1,608 g (3.545 lb) for females and 1,224 g (2.698 lb) for males.
Mature males [wild turkey] are about 2.5 feet tall and weigh up to 25 pounds. The average weight is 18 to 20 pounds. The females (hens) are smaller than toms and weigh 9 to 12 pounds. [4kg to 5.5kg]
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.
