WHAT AN OWL KNOWS: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds, by Jennifer Ackerman
While reading “What an Owl Knows,” by the science writer Jennifer Ackerman, I was reminded that my daughter once received a gift of a winter jacket festooned with colorful owls. At the time I thought of the coat as merely cute, but it turns out that the very existence of such merchandise reflects certain cultural assumptions about the birds: namely, that they are salutary and good.
Owls can also carry more negative connotations, depending on the context. In some places they are associated with wisdom and prophecy (the goddess Athena and her owl); in others they are considered portents of bad luck, illness and even death. As it happens, the existence of owl-inspired merchandise is a useful indicator of human-owl relations in a given society. Ackerman, who has written several other books about birds, recounts a surprising story of rapid cultural transformation in the Serbian town of Kikinda, where owls were at one time considered such an ominous sign that people would harass or shoot them. Over the course of a decade, an educational campaign persuaded the townspeople otherwise. A tree full of owls is now something to show off instead of cut down, and each November, schoolchildren write poems and artwork dedicated to the birds.
Perhaps one of the main reasons owls have been burdened with so many cultural stereotypes is that they are so distinctive — even a young child can identify their shape — while also being enduringly mysterious. In “What an Owl Knows,” Ackerman explains that the “new science” she refers to in her subtitle has required technological innovations: cameras, drones, DNA analysis, satellite transmitters. We can now see owls inside their nests or migrating over the Great Lakes. But even the most sophisticated gear can do only so much. Getting physically close to owls presents some stubborn challenges. Researchers wanting to protect their heads from an owl swooping down cannot wear a hard-hat helmet, because that could kill a bird on impact. A researcher who got whacked by a big female protecting her nest recalls feeling blood streaming from the back of his skull and pulling out a piece of talon.
“Finding owls is hard,” a naturalist and photographer tells Ackerman, stating a simple truth from which many complications follow. Another researcher, who has encountered hundreds of owls, says, “It was still magic to me every time we found one, because they’re so well camouflaged and so shy.” There are some 260 species of owls spread across every continent except Antarctica. They were initially thought to be related to other birds of prey, like falcons or hawks, and, later, to nocturnal birds, like nightjars. But it turns out that the owl’s closest relatives are a group of birds that are active in the daytime, including toucans and woodpeckers.
