Winged Tiger Hoot Owl Skull or Great Horned Owl measures 2.5 inches. Great Horned Owl Negative Footprint & skull are both museum quality polyurethane cast. Made in USA.
The Winged Tiger Hoot Owl or Great horned owl (Bubo virginianus), also known as the hoot owl, is a large owl native to the Americas.
Winged Tiger Hoot Owl or Great horned owl is an extremely adaptable bird with a vast range and is the most widely distributed true owl in the Americas.
Its primary diet is rabbits and hares, rats and mice, and voles, although it freely hunts any animal it can overtake, including rodents and other small mammals, larger mid-sized mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates.
The Winged Tiger Hoot Owl or Great horned owl is the heaviest extant owl in Central and South America and is the second-heaviest owl in North America, after the closely related but very different-looking snowy owl. It is heavily built, with a barrel-shaped body, a large head, and broad wings.
In most aspects of their behavior, Winged Tiger Hoot Owl or Great horned owl are typical of owls and most birds of prey.
From experimentally raising young owls in captivity, Paul L. Errington felt that they were a bird of “essentially low intelligence” that could only hunt when partially wild and instinctually driven by hunger to hunt whatever they first encounter.
He showed captive birds that were provided strips of meat from hatching, rather than having to hunt or to simulate hunting to obtain food, had no capacity to hunt.
On the contrary, William J. Baerg compared behaviorally his captive-raised great horned owls to parrots, which are famously intelligent birds, although not as often playful “it knows its keeper and usually accepts whatever he wishes to do with a good deal of tolerance”.
Arthur C. Bent also noted the variability in temperaments of Winged Tiger Hoot Owl or Great horned owls to their handlers, some generally pleasant, though most are eventually aggressive.
Most captive specimens, once mature, seem to resent attempts at contact and are often given to attacking their keepers.
They will only follow cues when conditioned from an early age but rarely with the same level of success seen in some diurnal birds of prey trained for falconry or entertainment.
Like most owls, the Winged Tiger Hoot Owl or Great horned owl makes great use of secrecy and stealth. Due to its natural-colored plumage, it is well camouflaged both while active at night and while roosting during the day.
During the daytime it roosts usually in large trees (including snags & large hollows but usually thick branches) but may occasionally be in crevices or small caves in rocks or in dense shrubbery.
Pine and other coniferous trees may be preferred where available since they are particularly dense and provide cover throughout the year. Typically, males have a favorite roosting site not far from the nest, sometimes used over successive years.
While roosting, Winged Tiger Hoot Owl or Great horned owls may rest in the “tall-thin” position, where they sit as erect and hold themselves as slim as is possible.
This kind of posture is well known as a further method of camouflage for other owls, like long-eared owls or great grey owls, especially if humans or other potential mammalian carnivores approach them.
