![Thanks](https://www.renovateforums.com.au/dbtech/thanks/images/thanks.png)
![Likes](https://www.renovateforums.com.au/dbtech/thanks/images/likes.png)
![Needs Pictures](https://www.woodworkforums.com/images/smilies/happy/photo4.gif)
![Picture(s) thanks](https://www.ubeaut.biz/wave.gif)
Results 1 to 15 of 19
Thread: Do Owls eat possums?
-
19th June 2011, 01:09 PM #1
Do Owls eat possums?
Just found a dead possum on the front lawn, it was missing it's head I have heard that owls go after possums and crush their skull, As I have a tawny Frog Mouth living in the park next door I was wondering if he could be the culprit?
Any one know about the habits of this bird?Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I´m not so sure about the universe.
-
19th June 2011, 01:55 PM #2
Retro Phrenologist
- Join Date
- Oct 2009
- Location
- Springfield NSW
- Age
- 71
- Posts
- 0
I doubt that a tawny frogmouth would take a possum. They are generally into much smaller things - insects, frogs and small mammals (mice etc.) A larger owl, powerful owl or barn owl etc, could well take a possum, but I doubt that it would leave it behind.
If I were a betting man, I would go for a Felis Catus as the culprit.
-
19th June 2011, 02:22 PM #3
It was a cat.
Chris
========================================
Life isn't always fair
....................but it's better than the alternative.
-
19th June 2011, 03:39 PM #4
might have been a Newzealander
what if the hokey pokey is really what it's all about?
-
19th June 2011, 05:29 PM #5
-
20th June 2011, 12:35 AM #6
Senior Member
- Join Date
- Mar 2009
- Location
- Central Vic
- Posts
- 36
Definitely a cat, I've never known an owl to take just a head, a tawny frogmouth wouldn't take on a possum but a powerful owl would, and there would be strips of flesh missing, it's not a pretty sight.
col.
-
20th June 2011, 09:24 AM #7
Skwair2rownd
- Join Date
- Nov 2007
- Location
- Dundowran Beach
- Age
- 76
- Posts
- 0
Don't think an owl would do that, most likely a cat.
By the way Tawny Frogmouths are not owls. They are Nightjars.
-
20th June 2011, 09:34 AM #8
As this video shows, you might be surprised by the number of cats that visit your place at night...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIbkL...er_embedded#at
So it could be a cat doing the damage.
However, I did hear an owl expert on a Radio National program last year say that owls do take possums. I recall the interview well because it prompted me to think at the time that it must be a bloody big owl, given the size of some of the possums that visit my home at night from time to time.
I know little of owls but the bloke being interviewed was a national expert who had recorded a lot of owl sounds and played some of them on the program.
I cannot remember the details of the program but it might have been on the "Bush Telegraph" program.
.
-
20th June 2011, 10:29 AM #9
Could have been a powerful owl. They are quite big. Not usually this cuddly I suspect, but at least you can tell the size! But it was probaqbly still a cat, cos a reckon a sane animal wouldn't eat the head.
Bird of the week: The killer Owls of Durham County | The Northern Mythanne-maria.
Tea Lady
(White with none)
Follow my little workshop/gallery on facebook. things of clay and wood.
-
20th June 2011, 10:32 AM #10anne-maria.
Tea Lady
(White with none)
Follow my little workshop/gallery on facebook. things of clay and wood.
-
20th June 2011, 11:17 AM #11
Phil,
we had a similar thing happen out the front of a neighbour's house in our court. We are adjacent some bush land in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.
The neighbour found it a few days before a court BBQ last year, and only a few weeks after I saw a TV show describing the Powerful Owl.
All thought it was a cat, including the Vet from a few doors around...however, I went looking for the telltale small chevron feathers from the owl's breast. (seen the the pictures above.....as recommended on the TV show) Sure enough there was one on the ground under the tree where the possum bits were found.
Never seen or heard them in the 20+ years we have lived here, but the feather was there.
Regards,
Peter
-
20th June 2011, 12:31 PM #12
Senior Member
- Join Date
- Jun 2010
- Location
- Canberra
- Posts
- 0
I agree it could be a powerful owl. The fact that it was dropped on a lawn suggests it may have been morer likely a cat. Powerful owls are well known to sit all day with a half a possum or glider in their talons then eat the rest later. They also clip tails off young brushtail possums they have caught and drop them. Adult brushtails are too large for them though they will eat young ones. There was one visiting the National Botanic Gardens in Canberra a couple of years ago and over a month or so it cleaned out most of the gliders and possums that were living there. It was a most impressive bird.
Tawny frogmouths eat smaller prey and swallow things whole as they do not have a tearing hook on their beaks or talons to grasp prey with.
-
20th June 2011, 12:31 PM #13
Senior Member
- Join Date
- Sep 2010
- Location
- Melbourne
- Posts
- 0
It could be a powerful owl - they're found all along the Yarra River in Melbourne and I've seen them several times with a ringtail in their claws. Boobooks have been known to take ringtail possums too.
But most likely it was a cat or a fox. There's more foxes in urban than rural areas, and foxes love eating possums.
-
20th June 2011, 01:37 PM #14
Senior Member
- Join Date
- Apr 2009
- Location
- Sydney
- Posts
- 0
powerful owl
A breeding pair of P Owls can eat 200 possums a year
Depending on their habitat the also eat gliders, flying foxs, other birds including crows & even white cockatoos
They are Ninox or Hawk owls hunting mostly dawn/dusk by sight as opposed to Tinox hunting by hearing in the dark.They are still here in Sydney,Northern Beachs,Lane Cove park Sutherland shire,good thing
I saw one only 9 ks from CBD at dusk last year a big male.They range over large areas male has a wingspan of 140cm so pretty big,no shortage of possums. Breeding season now so males will have families to feed.First thing they do is break possums neck figure head might come off at same time.They mostly hunt in the tree canopy not at ground level. I was in NZ at Easter they are still mad at us about the possum thing
-
20th June 2011, 02:50 PM #15
Similar Threads
-
Wongo 4 : possums 0
By Wongo in forum NOTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH RENOVATIONReplies: 136Last Post: 28th July 2006, 06:02 PM