The "Biggest Owl" carved owl appeared in Peking University. What are its characteristics? Why dare to stand up to the golden eagle, and it will be endangered?

Owl, known as the "night hunter"! With the improvement of the ecological environment, these nocturnal activists gradually began to engage in public activities in broad daylight. It's true. Recently, many birdwatchers in Peking University used their cameras to record the photos of "the world's largest owl" carved owl. It is reported that this has been in Peking University for two consecutive years, which is very rare.

It is worth noting that the reporter learned from the natural science education institution "Popular Science Rover" that in fact, from 202 1, in addition to Peking University discovered this time, it has also appeared in other places in Beijing. Experts said that this is a good phenomenon, saying that Beijing's urban biodiversity is an important indicator of overall good. So what species is the vulture, a creature whose name is so difficult to recognize, and what are its characteristics? It is reported that it is the ceiling of the eagle, robbing everything. So how intense is it?

The "world's largest owl" eagle owl surprised Peking University. Why did it appear here? The vulture owl, the largest owl species in the world, is called "the largest owl in the world" and "Elvis Presley". According to relevant statistics, there are about 200 species of owls in the world, but there are more than 30 species in China, and the carved owl discovered this time is one of them. Ma Qingyu, the founder of a natural science education institution, said that according to his own statistics, there are about 10 kinds of owls that can be seen in Beijing, such as long-eared owls, short-eared owls and small owls with vertical stripes. The vulture owl is the largest and very typical owl family.

Then the question is, why do vultures frequent Beijing? First of all, as mentioned above, the environmental conditions in Beijing are getting better and better. According to relevant statistics, by the end of 2020, Beijing had planted 8.96 million mu of trees through sandstorm source control in Beijing and Tianjin, and the urban forest coverage rate reached 44.4%, which was 3 1.980 and 1.9 respectively higher than that in 2000. At present,

The vulture owl is a bird that doesn't pick the environment. Africa is a plateau at an altitude of 4,500 meters, spanning mountains, plains, wilderness, forest-edge shrubs and even bare mountains and cliffs. They can adapt. In addition, the food chain of vultures is here, and they like to live in groups during the breeding period. In addition, the frequent patronage of vultures and owls is actually inseparable from the strengthening of people's awareness of protection now, and poaching, poisoning and human beating are basically gone. So there are so many vultures living here in Beijing, and their repeated visits are the result of many comprehensive factors, among which environmental factors are inseparable and human efforts are indelible.

You are the king with horns on your head? What are the characteristics of vultures and how fierce they are? It is very fierce. Known as the king of the air, the ceiling of the eagle. Before we know how fierce it is, let's take a look at what strange species it and the Rubik's Cube are!

From the appearance, the vulture owl has big, intense eyes very similar to the owl, a spiny hard beak bent downward, wings with different shapes, a short, round tail and a pair of "horns" on its head. The carved owl's face is light brown, but its body is also black, brown and gray, with occasional local patches, ripples or spots. According to statistics, the carved owl's body length can reach 7 1cm, its maximum weight can reach 8.4 kg, and its wingspan can reach1.8m. Because it looks like a cat, it spreads its wings like a king and is very fierce, hence its name "Elvis Presley".

Carved owls are produced all over the world. As far as China is concerned, carved owls are mainly distributed in Northeast China and Sichuan. The breeding season in Northeast China is concentrated from April to July, and in Sichuan, it starts from 65438+February. As far as living habits are concerned, vultures are generally far away from the crowd. When they hunt at night, they will make a cry of "hard, loud and tiger" to communicate with each other. They rest during the day and like to stand on branches and shrink their necks to rest.

Then the question is coming! Is the lovely carved owl really so harmless? Obviously not! Carved owls have very sensitive hearing. They can hear sounds smaller than those that humans can hear. Therefore, although their eyesight is not very good, they can clear and locate invisible prey only by this. Carving owls is very dangerous. Whenever catching prey or attacking an opponent, they will threaten with their wings half open, and at the same time, they will eventually make a "click" sound to warn you. If he is allowed to take further action, he will attack with his four-centimeter-long and extremely sharp claws.

According to relevant statistics, the grip of vultures' claws per square inch is about 3 17 kg, and the bite force of their beaks is slightly smaller than that of wolves. These two sharp weapons alone can easily catch prey, or crush and pierce it, and then subdue it by taking advantage of flight. For example, this year, in addition to the bald eagle that appeared many times, the bald eagle found in Elk Garden captured the picture of it preying on mallard duck in Elk Garden, and just a few days ago, it also captured the bald eagle preying on a magpie at 2 am. In nature, the food chain of the vulture owl is very wide, with porcupines, wild cats, ferrets, pheasants and hedgehogs all in its mouth, which is more correct than the "king fried" golden eagle.

vulture

So fierce, why are the "top predators" in the air in danger? Experts estimate that the breeding population in Europe is about 18500 to 30000, while Europe accounts for 20% of the total population in mature individuals, which means that the global population of this species is about 180000 to 300000. However, because this estimate has not been verified, the published figures are still in the range of 100000 to 499999. Surprisingly, although the total number is so large, the number of Asia has been declining since 1960s and 1970s, and the trend is becoming more and more obvious.

The reason is that the number of vulture owls is declining, which is inseparable from two reasons. First of all, it is environmental factors. Just like the increase of forest coverage in Beijing mentioned earlier, the environment was not so suitable for vultures to survive in the past, and its prey was few, so naturally it was even less. Besides, it is human intervention.

How to protect it? Experts said that it is a good phenomenon that carved owls have appeared frequently in Beijing recently. It is not like the folk saying that "it is not good for night owls to enter the house." Carved owls are not only endangered animals, but also listed as rare species. Now it is a second-class protected animal. They also have the right to live and need to be cherished. So where should we start?

First of all, animals are frightened. Try not to look at wild animals such as vultures. Not to mention whether this will affect their habitat and hunting, if they are regarded as threats and attack you, it will be dangerous. Secondly, there are often pesticides and rodenticides in cities, which are easy to attract wild animals. I hope that the delivery can be more accurate, instead of letting the raptor be killed by rodenticide.

To sum up, protecting biodiversity needs to start from us, from now on. Rare species have only one life, and they all have the right to live. Many bad phenomena show that perhaps human beings are really the "biggest natural enemies" of many endangered, extremely endangered and fragile species, which has to be admitted. I hope that after changing the "protection mode", there will be more and greater achievements in the future.