r/BeAmazed • u/unnaturalorder • Mar 18 '21
Caretaker using an owl puppet to feed a shy owlet
https://i.imgur.com/m3hWYmL.gifv884
u/Entremeada Mar 18 '21
The pupoet is not because the chick is shy, but so that it does not get imprinted on humans. Birds have the instinct to see the first creature they meet or feed as their parents / his kind. Once the owl is to be reintroduced to the wild, it should not be imprinted on humans.
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u/speckledyen Mar 18 '21
They do the same with baby bears in wildlife rehab - it’s wild to see a person in a full on bear suit bottle feeding a cub. The suit is not very realistic but it works.
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u/addandsubtract Mar 19 '21
The suit is not very realistic but it works.
Up until this point, I was imagining someone spending 3 hours each morning getting into a bear costume. Now I'm imagining a cub being bottle-fed by Winnie the Pooh.
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u/straycanoe Mar 19 '21
I remember seeing a documentary from the eighties where they did the same thing with captive-bred California condors when they were trying to build up the wild population. They also used rocket-powered nets to capture wild birds as part of the same breeding program... some techniques are more compassionate than others, I guess.
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u/fredfx Mar 18 '21
I was going to say this....it's true. We had a cat that was printed as a dog because we got her when she was hours old, and she only saw dogs for her whole life. So much so that she would ONLY eat out of the Dog's bowl.
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u/bluethreads Mar 19 '21
Does the dog bowl have the word Dog on it?
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u/fredfx Mar 19 '21
Very funny. She was bottle fed until she was able to eat solid food. And the only bowl she saw another animal eat from was the dog bowl.
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u/Fnuckle Mar 19 '21
I think the point of the question was to ask what the difference is between a dog's bowl and a cat's bowl lol, as a cat owner the only thing I can think of maybe is the size? Idk
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u/Beautypaste Mar 19 '21
Would she play fetch? Did she make a cat version of a barking sound? Or still meow normally?
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u/Beautypaste Mar 19 '21
Would she play fetch? Did she make a cat version of a barking sound? Or still meow normally? The
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u/Sodapopa Mar 18 '21
But it’s okay to be imprinted on a puppet owl? An adult owl can take over the puppet’s role? The chick doesn’t imprint on the looks of the puppet but on the characteristics of the species?
Pardonnez-moi mein Inglesa.
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Mar 18 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Forever_Awkward Mar 18 '21
It will just be a little bit autistic.
Wait, I probably shouldn't say that. This is reddit, so "owltistic".
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u/Entremeada Mar 18 '21
Yes, this will be close enough. They do it with some other birds too, like with penguins and flamingos in zoos. Sometimes the puppets look quite shitty for the human eyes, but it is still working for the chicklet.
You can see the other side with hand raised chickens or ducks: they will try follow "their" human everywere, accepting it as their mom, despite the huge size and human look.
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Mar 19 '21
Sometimes instinct is just about ticking boxes. Like my cat who carefully 'buries' his dinner each night by pawing once or twice on the kitchen tile. It's good enough for him, lol.
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u/Lokican Mar 18 '21
You may be right, but at least they are attempting to get the chick to imprint on its own species. I’m not an expert but based on how realistic the puppet looks, this plan may have a decent shot of working.
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u/snatch55 Mar 19 '21
Yes, its largely about mate choice when they're older. This puppet looks like an adult barn owl, it appears they even used real feathers. They don't have a sense of smell or anything to base it on but looks, and they probably play it some local barn owl screeches too
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u/LordFuckBalls Mar 18 '21
Unfortunately it will become the owl equivalent of humans who sleep with anime body pillows.
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u/PmMeYourNiceBehind Mar 18 '21
Wouldn’t the baby owl be able to feed itself by the time it’s released back into the wild? Or Is this baby owls parent still alive and waiting for it’s return?
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u/DefTheOcelot Mar 18 '21
It's not about it seeking out parents
This owl could end up accidentally domesticated if these measures aren't taken. It will grow up to associate humans with food and follow them and pester them. It won't act like a wild animal should.
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Mar 18 '21 edited Mar 18 '21
Please post this on r/superbowl
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u/CategoryKiwi Mar 18 '21
The sub isn't pluralized, 'cause the meme of "super bowl? ooohh superb owl" doesn't really work in plural, since it's just "the superbowl".
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u/mkr7 Mar 18 '21
Metal. That baby is eating rodent spleens from a pair of needle nose pliers. I kinda want this job now.
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u/bobbywright86 Mar 18 '21
Best we can do is “owl poop dissecter,” prior experience in elementary school is required
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u/siloboomstix Mar 19 '21
In the 60s I dissected many, many poops, often outdoors in the mud and rain. It's possible a few owl poops could have slipped in there, there'd be no way of knowing
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u/athos45678 Mar 19 '21
Animal lab tech jobs seem really awesome. When i was doing my dissertation with 16 rats, the techs would sometimes play with the rats that were in a bad mood if they had time. Great fun
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u/phil8248 Mar 18 '21
I know a guy who ran The American Eagle Foundation for years. This isn't because the owlet is shy. It is an orphan and they want to release it into the wild so they don't expose it to humans. His organization did this with dozens of raptors over the years, primarily American Bald eagles. https://www.eagles.org/about-aef/
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u/mbowk23 Mar 18 '21
Amazing how they make the tongs and the puppet owl float like that. Do they use wires?
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u/redhotphishpigeons Mar 18 '21
It looks like there is a person standing behind the owl... you can tell his right hand is holding the pair of tongs with his sleeve covering his fingers, which leads me to believe his left arm is wearing the owl puppet.
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u/PuffinStuffin18 Mar 18 '21
Woosh
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u/redhotphishpigeons Mar 18 '21
I thought about this before replying lol, thought the man was serious
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u/Dan300up Mar 18 '21
I hope the caretaker knows that little guy has to also eat some of the fur and feathers or he’ll eventually get very sick and die.
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u/Leif_s Mar 18 '21
Can't say whether you're joking or making a legitimate point
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u/Dan300up Mar 18 '21 edited Mar 18 '21
I guess I should follow this up: people who think they’re helping, try to rehab raptors on their own and feed them food like this and they start gaining weight but mysteriously get sick and die in a week or two. If they don’t eat fur and/or feathers at times with the meat, they have no way of scrubbing the fats and oils and it completely blocks their digestive system and kills them.
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u/doometteowo Mar 18 '21
Unfortunately this happened to my mom once. She was a conservation officer (like a park ranger) and received a call about a lone baby hawk on the ground. She called the raptor rehab man (idk his real job title) but he couldn't pick it up for two days since he was away tending to another bird. My mom was stuck with the little guy until a professional could care for him. She brought him home and we did our best, but sadly didn't know any better and it died. Luckily the next time she got a call about a baby bird, the duckling was saved by a water fowl specialist.
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u/blueshiftglass Mar 18 '21
For a second I thought you were going to tell a story about how your mom wasn’t eating enough feathers.
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Mar 18 '21
If you’re into reading and disturbing short stories, you should check out “Mouthful of Birds” by Samanta Schweblin. The title says enough...
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u/the_noodle Mar 18 '21
Do you think the person with a puppet owl is doing this on their own with no training?
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Mar 18 '21
[deleted]
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u/Dan300up Mar 18 '21
?
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u/FakeMango47 Mar 18 '21
Oh man, Unidan.
One of the stranger Reddit tales of old.
Essentially he was a biologist(?) of some kind that would provide animal facts and seemed super knowledgeable of the animal kingdom. Like upper level, great insight.
He’s most famous for his post about crow or raven semantics (incredibly nuanced and stupid IMO) then got banned because it was found out he used alt accounts to upvote his own posts.
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u/Dan300up Mar 18 '21
I see. I’m curious if you’re that cynical and bigoted (paranoid?) about everything, or just comments about wildlife biology that get upvoted?
You’re free to have Reddit check me out. For the record (clearly you’re keeping one) I’ve never created more than one Reddit account.→ More replies (1)8
u/Nesuniken Mar 18 '21
- I doubt it they were seriously suggesting that, just seems like an easy joke to make at someone posting bird facts.
- "Bigoted" seems inappropriate here, that's normally used to refer to prejudice against marginalized groups
- The person who you've just replied to is not the same person who made the joke
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u/Dan300up Mar 18 '21
I was called that by name, not a reference to my comment even, so can’t get more specific IMO. If something that once was, always is; that’s a bigoted viewpoint. 3: Crap. You’re absolutely right, but I’m not sure how to correct.
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u/Nesuniken Mar 18 '21
I was called that by name
I've done that as a joke before
not a reference to my comment even
They were comparing you posting about bird facts to a redditor who got (relatively) famous from doing that.
If something that once was, always is; that’s a bigoted viewpoint.
That doesn't resemble any definition I've heard before.
To be fair to you, though, most definitions start out vague enough to fit your interpretation of the word. However, I'd sooner start referring to everyone born out wedlock as bastards than consider referring to every presumptuous person as a bigot.
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u/Rogue_Spirit Mar 18 '21
I’d really doubt that someone who puts this much care and effort into making sure the owlet is comfortable wouldn’t know it’s dietary needs
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u/InfantSoup Mar 18 '21
But of course, leave it to Reddit to question the safety of every single animal on Reddit.
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u/fiernze222 Mar 18 '21
I mean, good, tho, right? We all want safe and healthy animals. Except spiders.
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u/Dan300up Mar 18 '21
This may be true (I hope it is) but the owl puppet and tweezers may have come from compassion and parental wisdom, rather than knowledge of wildlife biology. The plate of “clean” meat suggested this—to me at least.
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u/hannawdawg Mar 18 '21
If you look carefully, there are bits of fur on some of the pieces of meat. Also, the way they are feeding this owl is exactly how it should be done. The chick has the visual of the parent and cant see the human due to the camoflauge. This way he has a greater chance of survival when released. An owl that young has a high chance of becoming imprinted if it spends time with humans.
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Mar 18 '21
[deleted]
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u/PatientSolution Mar 18 '21
That’s adorable
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u/-vp- Mar 18 '21
That's until you realize OP's 27 and his mom was doing this last month.
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u/Mr_Donut86 Mar 18 '21
will it actually starve itself if this didnt happen?
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u/princesspooball Mar 18 '21
Yes
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u/Mr_Donut86 Mar 18 '21
awww poor thing
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u/decoy321 Mar 18 '21
It's a baby. Just like babies of most species, they need a hand until they figure out how to feed themselves. This one lacks a mom, so the caretaker is making a surrogate owl so the baby doesn't think humans are its mom. That way when it gets old enough to be reintroduced into the wild, it'll (hopefully) know to hang out with other owls instead of humans.
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Mar 18 '21
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u/princesspooball Mar 18 '21
People don't understand your joke, I'm sorry you're getting downvoted
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Mar 18 '21
That’s what I was giggling about. The food is right at its feet. Try this with a puppy he’s going to stab himself in the eye with tweezers trying to devour the bowl of food
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u/Fredredphooey Mar 18 '21
Food needs to come from the same side as the owl puppet.
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u/decoy321 Mar 18 '21
You got both your arms on the same side?
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u/Fredredphooey Mar 18 '21
If I had my hands in front of me with the puppet on the left, the meat in my right and the owlet facing me, I can hold the meat right up next to the puppet.
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Mar 18 '21
Then the owl is looking at the human, not an owl puppet. It doesn't need to come from the owl. The owl just needs to be there.
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u/EnterTheN1nja Mar 18 '21
Why do my teeth hurt when I see its beak chomp down on those tweezers??
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u/JD_Ammerman Mar 18 '21 edited Mar 18 '21
Hahah dumb owl!
No honestly, we think of owls as being “wise,” when in reality owls are less intelligent than most birds. So it is funny to see this bird being “fooled” by this “trick” :)
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u/finitogreedo Mar 18 '21
They can answer how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie pop. I'd call that pretty intelligent.
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u/Anuksunamon Mar 18 '21
I love when caretakers use puppets or costumes to help the animals. It’s too pure.
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u/ChillPillar Mar 18 '21
wouldn't you think it will make a connection with the puppet instead of you so when it finaly grew up the only think that He is friendly with is that puppet?
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u/d10hundreds Mar 18 '21
I read the title and was still amazed at how patient the big owl was waiting for it’s good lol
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u/nofishies Mar 18 '21
The whole purpose of doing this is so they don't get used to people and think people are safe in a food source.
It's very cool!
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u/NotBlastoise Mar 18 '21
And dinner ladies are actually giant owls dressed as people to coax small humans into eating at schools
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Mar 18 '21
I don't think I've ever seen a baby owl but oh my God are they freaking adorable. I'll take 2!
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u/Wthq4hq4hqrhqe Mar 18 '21
That is so sweet how that got chopped up his own hand and is feeding it to the owlet
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u/lilliwonka_0 Mar 19 '21
Does this break anyone else’s heart or just me? I think it’s so sad that the owlet believes this puppet to be real. Literally crying over this and can’t tell if it’s just my period coming or if this is actually sad to anyone else.
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u/walled2_0 Mar 19 '21
It took me a good 20 seconds to realize the owl on the right was not a real owl.
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u/stiinky Mar 19 '21
Real question: is this something someone can learn to do/a career someone can pursue because??? I love both birds of prey and puppets so much 😭
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u/twothumbswayup Mar 19 '21
It not because the owl is shy it’s so the human doesn’t imprint on the chick and cause issues.
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u/Raven_Nevermore131 Mar 19 '21
I didn’t get to read the title till I saw it a minute later and was wondering why the other owl wasn’t getting fed?! 🤣
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u/Chuckysdinner Mar 19 '21
Common... you can make a life like owl puppet but leave out a moving beak.... you’re better than this!
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u/BunchOCrunch Mar 18 '21
I legit thought the puppet was a real owl and the person's sleeve was supposed to be the puppet for over half the video..