by Kallie Szczepanski
Love them, hate them, revere them, or fear them... The one thing humans have never been able to do is to ignore owls. Why are we so fascinated by them?
The behavioral and physical characteristics of owls lend them a definite air of mystery.
Owls are nocturnal, of course, while humans are diurnal. Since our days on the savannahs of Africa, when we were often the prey of night's hunters, we associate nocturnal creatures with death. We are still, collectively, afraid of the dark.
Another aspect of owl physiology that has an impact on human observers is their ability to fly in near-silence. Many birds make some noise as they fly; some, such as ducks and quails, are extremely noisy. Owls, on the other hand, float like ghosts between the trees or across the fields. This ability lends to their otherworldly reputation.
In addition, various species of owls have different calls, but nearly all of them can raise the hair on the back of a listener's neck. Some calls, like the "whoo-hoo" of the great horned owl, are just pleasantly eerie. Others, like that of the Asian eagle owl, sound like the screams of a soul in torment. That is entirely by design. Owls use their frightening cries to flush small game from its hiding places. Then the hunting owl uses its excellent hearing and night-adapted binocular vision to pin-point the location of the hapless mouse or rabbit. A silent dive, and dinner is served.
Finally, the appearance of owls usually provokes one kind of reaction or another from people. All owls have round, flat faces with large, forward-facing eyes. In other words, their faces are shaped and proportioned much like ours. Some of the larger owls, such as horned, gray, or eagle owls, have facial features which look stern, commanding, or wise to a human observer. Others, such as pygmy owls and saw whet owls, have round heads and proportionally huge eyes that make them look cute and baby-like to us.
Given all of these characteristics, is it any wonder that most human cultures have been fascinated by owls, and have attached special meaning to the birds?
This has been true for as long as people have kept records of any kind. More than 30,000 years ago, on a wall in Chauvet Cave, France, someone painted a portrait of a long-eared owl. It is one of the earliest known works of art. We don't know what significance the painter accorded his or her subject, but owls were important enough to be included amongst the big game and dangerous
predators recorded in pigment by our Paleolithic ancestors.
Coming forward about 26,000 years in time, the Sumerian culture believed that owls attended their goddess of death, Lilith.
Two millennia after the Sumerian period, the Bible often used owls to signify terror and desolation. In fact, owls are frequently paired with dragons in biblical imagery. Job 30:29 says "I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls." A curse from Isaiah 34:13: "And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be a habitation of dragons, and a court for owls." This is fearsome company, indeed, for our nocturnal raptors!
Owls were rehabilitated somewhat, however, in classic Greek mythology, where they were associated with Athena, goddess of wisdom. This parallel interpretation, knowledge but also death, has clung to the owl in European cultures ever since.
How do owls fare in the world today?
Western people generally like owls, and are excited to see them. An owl sighting is a sign that a particular ecosystem is relatively healthy and complete. Besides, it's a rare event for most people to see an owl, and that increases the value of the experience. This attitude has only developed over the last couple of centuries; previously, western European cultures usually associated owls with death and devilry. Owls were often accused of being witches' familiars: this connection can be glimpsed in the Harry Potter series, where owls deliver mail for witches and wizards.
In East Asia and Central Asia, owls are generally well-regarded. Chinese people use owl amulets to ward off lightning strikes. The Ainu of Japan consider owls the messengers of the gods. Mongols credit an owl with saving the life of Genghis Khan, their great leader. According to Afghan lore, the owl brought fire to mankind. In the Middle East, however, owls still have a bad reputation. Hebrew tradition, as shown in the Bible passages above, associates owls with blindness and desolation. In Iran and throughout the Arabian Peninsula, owls are considered very bad luck; they sometimes carry children away at night and eat them.
Throughout Africa, owls are associated with witchcraft and dark magic. Some sorcerer-kings are said to turn themselves into owls in order to do their terrible deeds unseen.
In Native American cultures, the owl is often a messenger of death. This has been true from the time of the Aztecs and Incas, and is still believed by some people.
Finally, Australian Aborigines believe that owls are the souls of women. (Bats are men.) Owls are therefore honored as sisters. Just across the water, however, the Maori of New Zealand believe that owls are bearers of bad news. While they can be intimidating, owls are also powerful protecting spirits. The fearsome round-eyed expression used by warriors when they do the "Haka" is modeled on the face of an owl, and many Maori women used to tattoo an owl-eye motif on their chins. (These days, most just draw the design on with eyebrow pencil when they perform traditional dances for tourists.)
People's reactions to owls still vary widely around the world. Some see them as beautiful, awe-inspiring, and wise. Others view owls as demons, the restless spirits of ancestors, or witches in disguise. Whichever way you look at them, though, you won't look away.
Learn more about this author, Kallie Szczepanski.
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