Great Horned Owl dinner menu, courtesy of Wikipedia
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These birds hunt at night by waiting on a high perch and swooping down
on prey. Prey is quite variable, but is predominantly small to
medium-sized mammals such as rats, squirrels, mice, moles, voles,
marmots, skunks, shrews, bats, weasels, gerbils and even porcupines.
Locally, hares and rabbits can comprise a great majority of subsistence
for Great Horned Owls. Birds comprise the other large portion of Great
Horned Owl prey, with birds ranging in size from kinglets to Great Blue
Herons being taken. Locally, waterbirds, especially coots and ducks, can
be important prey; raptors up to the size of Snowy Owls are sometimes
taken. Reptiles, amphibians, fish, crustaceans and even insects are
occasional prey. Cannibalism has been recorded.
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Chuck Norcutt
Chris Crawford wrote:
> Wow, I've never had a cat get eaten. Not much in Indiana that will tangle
> with a cat. My grandpa's old cat, Molly, has killed two rattlesnakes. When I
> lived in Santa Fe, people used to talk of cats being eaten by coyotes and
> one person I knew had a cat get eaten by a large owl. That woman had several
> horses and she kept complaining that her barn was full of mice and she
> couldn't seem to get rid of them. Noticing that she didn't have any cats, I
> suggested getting one to live in the barn. That's when she told me that her
> last cat got eaten by the owl that lives in a tree on her property. She says
> she saw the owl tear her cat apart while it was still alive! That
> traumatized her and she never got another cat.
>
>
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