Owls peaked my interest on my visit to the zoo this week. Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Zoo houses three species of owls, the small Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia), the huge Great Grey Owl (Strix nebulosa) Manitoba’s Provincial bird symbol, and the beautiful Snowy Owl ( Bubo scandiacus), the Provincial bird symbol of Quebec. It’s too bad there isn’t a Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) too, Alberta’s Province bird. Then all the owls representing Province/Territories in Canada would be here! On this early warm afternoon these birds sit quietly in their confines. Their still appearance belies their nature.
Everything about most of these intriguing creatures is peculiar and strange, adapted to serve their nature as carnivorous raptor birds. Nocturnal hunters, their eyes, large and stationary, with tubular interiors, face forward to provide binocular type vision, good for distant vision, very poor for up close vision. The result is a bird with a flat face. The neck vertebrae enable the head to swivel 270 degrees on a still body to prevent noise and movement startling prey.
Ears, surrounded by specialized feathers to focus sound and set asymmetrically, enable precise detection of fleeing or frightened hidden food. Feathers are designed to produce almost soundless flight! Sharp talons are adapted to knead and crush prey (usually small mammals, insects, and other birds). Sharp short hooked beaks tear and grip for a quick kill. Plumage colours provide spectacular camouflage rendering them nearly invisible. Efficient predators! The eyes staring back at me are chilling, making me grateful to be too large for their prey!
Apparently there are many myths about owls. Margaret Craven, in her well known 1960's book, I Heard the Owl Call My Name, associates the owl with death. It is easy to understand how the night hunting owl could be seen as a harbinger of death, and how just hearing an owl hooting could evoke ominous stories, or how it could also become a powerful totem. I am told that taboos surrounding this bird even today guide management of forests and natural resources here in Canada.
Owls have been associated too with evil, sorcery and witches, with some cultures warning children “‘the owls will get you’ if you misbehave”. Some famous ancient Roman scholars decried the owl’s presence as an abomination, or an evil omen. Even Shakespeare’s Ajax termed this bird “vile owl" (Troilus and Cressida, 2.1.949). Nevertheless, it is said that for some Australian Aborigines owls have been considered sacred, and others, associating the owl with the souls of people, warn that harming or killing it could mean the death of the soul it carried. Yet in ancient Greek culture, owls were associated with wisdom and with a goddess. Its famous city? Athens, renowned for art and scholarship. Its patron? The goddess Athena. Her symbol? an owl!
That is my favourite association as I peer at these sedate owls in Winnipeg’s zoo. Athena. Her connection with wisdom. Her championing the Greek hero, Odysseus, convincing the gallery of gods, and her father, Zeus, to allow him to return home, mainly because he was a scamp who had hutzpa and was able “to think”, “to act” and “to learn”. She guided the restless unscrupulous warrior to a realization of the centrality of his life: religion, home, and family. He even had to harrow Hades to reach that truth. I think Wisdom comes from finding a context for one’s life. Odysseus was limited mainly to two, mutability and death. I am glad of the revelation of God’s love expressed in the mystery of Jesus’ suffering, death, and Resurrection. Given the added context of hope, I don’t think I should fear to hear the owl call my name.
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All photos courtesy of Frank Obrigewitsch, SJ unless otherwisse indiccated.