About Owls<\/h3>\n
Although the Owl has huge eyes that see remarkably well at night it mostly relies on its exceptional hearing to catch prey.\u00a0 Being nocturnal hunters, owls can be seen by day perched high up in a tree, avoiding sunlight and resting before the nights hunt.\u00a0 Owls hunt in rocky hills, woodlands and riverine forest areas, where they can easily find prey.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
About Owls<\/h3>\n
Although the Owl has huge eyes that see remarkably well at night it mostly relies on its exceptional hearing to catch prey.\u00a0 Being nocturnal hunters, owls can be seen by day perched high up in a tree, avoiding sunlight and resting before the night’s hunt.\u00a0 Owls hunt in rocky hills, woodlands and riverine forest areas, where they can easily find prey.<\/p>\n
The two most common Owls found in the Kruger National Park are the Barn Owl and the Verreaux’s Eagle Owl.<\/h3>\nThe Barn Owl<\/h3>\n
The Barn Owl<\/a> has earned the nickname \u201cGhost Owl\u201d, because of its eerie \u201cScreeech\u201d made while flying at night, its ghostly appearance and the fact that it likes to roost in abandoned buildings.<\/p>\n The adult Barn Owl is about 30-36cm in height and weighs roughly 410g.\u00a0 With a wingspan of 90cm, this medium sized owl has a\u00a0golden buff and a pale colouring.\u00a0 Black eyes are seen in a very distinctive heart shaped face.<\/p>\n Barn Owls prey on lizards, birds and frogs but their main source of food is rodents.\u00a0 These Owls live easily where humans are present and often nest in barns or close the human settlements.\u00a0 In the Kruger National Park<\/strong><\/a>, they are often found nesting close to rest camps.\u00a0 Owls hunt from dusk, as raptors will hunt owls if they can find them during the day.<\/p>\n Barn Owls breed from March to May and lay 5 or 6 eggs in a simple depression.\u00a0 After about 33 days the eggs will hatch and the young owls will be ready to leave the nest after about 70 days.\u00a0 Barn Owls usually mate for life.<\/p>\n An Adult Verreaux’s Eagle Owl<\/a> is larger than a Barn Owl. It measures about 58 to 66 cm and can weigh anything from 1.5 to 2.4 kg. Having a wingspan of 1.50m, this is a large owl, with very noticeable ear tufts.\u00a0 Verreaux’s Eagle Owls have dark eyes and pink eyelids with a grey beak and a black rimmed pale face.<\/p>\n The preferred habitat of the Verreaux’s Eagle Owl is in woodlands and savannah areas, often in large trees.\u00a0 These Owls hunt in the same areas as eagles and falcons but can happily co-exist with these raptors because they are nocturnal.\u00a0 This Owl has a diverse diet and will hunt rodents, birds where they roosting for the night and even prey as large as a vervet monkey or a mongoose.\u00a0 The Verreaux’s Eagle Owl also eats insects and bats.\u00a0 While perched high in a tree the Owl will spot its prey and swoop down with wings that are virtually silent, slamming its huge sharp talons into the prey, resulting in instant death.<\/p>\n Verreaux’s Eagle-Owls usually use the same nest year after year.\u00a0 They breed from March to September and normally have two eggs. After about 39 days the eggs hatch and after three months the chicks are ready to fly.\u00a0 It is rare that both chicks survive. It is thought that the stronger one will dominate and in the end, the weaker owl will die.\u00a0 Although the surviving chick can fly at three months, it generally stays with the adults until the next breeding season.\u00a0 Verreaux’s Eagle-Owls are not known to breed every year.<\/p>\n Owls Found in Kruger National Park. Superstition and folktales are known to link Owls and bad omens.\u00a0 In some parts of the world, spikes are even placed on the roofs of rural houses to prevent owls from landing there. The eerie call of an owl at night still fills some people with the sense of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories-of-the-kruger-national-park"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.kurtsafari.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Verreauxs-Kruger-Park.webp\")
<\/p>\nVerreaux’s Eagle Owl<\/h3>\n
Whether you are staying in the park during your Kruger Park safari trip<\/a>, or should you be staying nearby, chances are good that if you wake during the night, you\u2019ll hear the call of the Owl, and it is in no way as sinister as superstitions of long ago would have you believe!<\/h3>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"