Last updated on July 26th, 2022 at 01:39 pm
Owls have some mysterious characteristics that intrigue many cultures around the world. The almost silent flight, for instance, makes owls a deadly predator. Their feeding habits might also be considered predatory due to how they swallow their prey.
Owls eat their prey whole, subject to the size of the animal they hunt and kill. So, an owl may swallow small mice, but it cannot eat an adult rabbit whole. Owls tear apart large prey and eat or swallow manageable chunks. Babies or younger owls eat bits and pieces.
5 Interesting Facts About Owls Eating Their Prey Whole
Evolutionary biology has a lot to do with how owls eat their prey and why birds don’t have teeth anymore.
Millions of years ago, birds used to have teeth, but those made way for beaks and talons, which are very sharp, especially on owls.
Owls are strong, fierce, and stealthy birds of prey.
Great horned owls can go after peregrine or prairie falcons in the wild. But can adult great-horned owls eat their prey like adult falcons whole?
The answer lies in the facts.
1. Owls Don’t Eat Every Type of Prey Whole
Owls aren’t fussy eaters, but they are strictly carnivorous.
All species of owls adapt to their habitats or surroundings and whatever is available to hunt, kill, and eat.
That means that all live animals that they can prey on are game, including fish.
Since owls can hunt and kill several types of animals, they pick and choose their prey and how to eat them.
However, no owl can eat any prey whole if it is too large.
Here are a few facts:
- Adult owls can eat whole arthropods, rodents, and small reptiles or amphibians.
- The larger species can conveniently eat some birds, including smaller owls, whole.
- The hunting or killing prowess of large owls isn’t the same as eating their prey.
- Owls dismember their prey when they cannot eat or swallow the latter in its entirety.
Most owls don’t feed on carrions because they aren’t scavengers. But all owls are opportunistic eaters.
So, many species feed on dead mammals larger than them whenever necessary and wherever available, including the following owls:
- Snowy owl
- Great horned owl
- Eurasian eagle owl
A team of researchers in Illinois photographed these owls gorging on carcasses from roadkills and other events during winter and their breeding season.
The photographs didn’t show the owls eating entire raccoons or deer in one gulp, of course. Instead, the owls nibbled to have their fill.
2. Owlets Are Unable To Eat Most Prey Whole
Like all adult owls eating larger animals in bits and pieces, owlets are unable to eat most prey whole.
Baby owls must be fed chunks of flesh without bones and fur.
In the wild, adult owls feed their babies by dismembering and tearing the flesh off their prey.
Owlets in captivity must be fed similarly. This fundamental approach applies to all baby owls, regardless of the species.
Theoretically, owlets can comfortably eat worms whole, but adult owls don’t hunt for such prey when they have to stockpile sufficient food for an entire brood.
Here’s how barn owls feed their babies by dismembering their prey:
3. Owls Cannot Store Food Before Digestion
Just because owls don’t eat every type of prey whole, that doesn’t mean that they feed on some animals in their entirety instead of dismembering them.
There’re at least 3 reasons for this.
Many birds have a crop, also known as ingluvies in zoology.
The sac or bag-like muscular pouch stores food before it is passed on to the stomach.
Thus, these birds can eat or swallow food and store some in the crop for various reasons, including feeding themselves and their babies.
Many raptors have a crop, including the following:
- Hawks
- Eagles
- Vultures
Owls don’t have a crop, so they cannot store any food before digestion.
Anything they eat goes straight to their stomach. So there’s no surplus or backup in store to digest or metabolize if the stomach is empty.
Naturally, owls gorge on as much food as they can in one go.
Additionally, owls are carnivorous, so they must hunt and kill their prey. There’s no bird feeder or a reliably constant supply of fruits or grains.
In other words, owls can’t predict their next meal and become complacent about their hunting and eating habits.
Therefore, owls eat their prey whole whenever they can.
This absence of a crop makes more sense in the context of eating appropriate prey whole once you consider its implication along with the following biological facts about owls.
4. Owls Need To Eat Sufficient Portions Daily
Owls have a high metabolic rate, and their daily food intake is the equivalent of 10% to 50% of their body mass.
Imagine a 4-lb great horned owl requiring 10% of its body weight as the daily dietary intake. That’s a minimum requirement of 6 oz of food.
Now, consider mice or lemmings weighing 1 oz each.
An adult Great-horned owl has to consume at least 6 of these in a limited period of hunting, killing, and eating.
Plus, parent owls must hunt, kill, and feed their babies.
They don’t have a crop to carry food for their babies, nor do owls regurgitate to feed owlets.
If you can visualize the ecosystem and the natural compulsions of most owls, the facts establish why owls tend to eat any eligible prey whole.
Of course, owls carry killed prey in their bills back to the brood for their families. Owls also store surplus food stock in nests, trees, and elsewhere.
5. Adult Owls Cannot Eat for Several Hours
Owls cannot eat for 10 hours or longer when they have a pellet stuck in their proventriculus.
This pellet is formed in their gizzard or ventriculus and is mostly undigested bones, fur, and other parts of the animal.
An owl pellet moves up from the gizzard to the proventriculus, which is the first chamber of the stomach if you go down the esophagus.
Thus, an owl has to wait for all those hours till it can cough up or spit out the pellet to eat again.
Any animal would naturally compensate for that time by eating more or as much as it can in the time available to hunt, kill, and consume.
That necessity is also why owls eat some prey whole.