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Owl Attack (1 Viewer)

stepsus

Member
While on a family holiday during the summer we stayed in a lovely cottage, the owners of the cottage had a pet owl (can't remember what breed, pictured below).

One day the owners children let the owl out and for some reason it flew straight to my daughter and clawed her in the face, my daughter ran screaming then the owl went for the back of her head.

Luckily my daughter wasn't badly hurt just a few cuts, it was the shock of what had happened more than anything else. The owners said that it had never happened before they had 2 small children of their own. They were very opologetic.

Does anyone know why the owl may have attacked my daughter, has anyone heard of this happening before.

It was also Friday the 13th.
 

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Hope your daughter is OK and doesn't have any scars or nightmares.
If that had been one of my kids that owl however beautiful would be an ex-owland taken to the taxidermist.
 
Owls

I find it rather sad that Owls are kept as pets but I suppose it may have been rescued and unable to live in the wild. :C

I know Tawny Owls have a reputation for attacking people who disturb nests and have been known to take a persons eye out. So I suppose it is likely that other species of owl will protect there space in similar ways. They are well equiped to do a lot of damage but thankfully your daughter escaped serious injury.

Brian
 
A "Pet" Eagle Owl..........!!

Bizarre!

I hope the owners have learned a valuable lesson from that 'Very Lucky' outcome.........

SE.
 
stepsus said:
While on a family holiday during the summer we stayed in a lovely cottage, the owners of the cottage had a pet owl (can't remember what breed, pictured below).

One day the owners children let the owl out and for some reason it flew straight to my daughter and clawed her in the face, my daughter ran screaming then the owl went for the back of her head.

Luckily my daughter wasn't badly hurt just a few cuts, it was the shock of what had happened more than anything else. The owners said that it had never happened before they had 2 small children of their own. They were very opologetic.

Does anyone know why the owl may have attacked my daughter, has anyone heard of this happening before.

It was also Friday the 13th.



Hi Sue,
Is that a thumbnail of the Owl ?
If so it is a bengal Eagle Owl ( Obviously Captive bred ) with anklets.
Many Eagle Owls are kept in captivity and some are flown but the problem with these birds is after about three years these birds become more aggresive and will attack, some escape but many are just released, due to people not being able to cope or like in many cases get bored !
Obviously Owls in captivity become reliant on being fed by humans and an escaped Owl will show no fear of humans especially when hungry ( some starve ). I know of a few owls that although are non indigenous have adapted and are surving in the wild and hunting themselves. The most common of these is the European Eagle Owl but there are one or two great Horned.
On sunday 24th Oct I was called out to an owl that was flying at people and had caught someone in the face.
It was a captive Tawny Owl that was very hungry and assuming that anyone would have food for it.
The bird was fitted with anklets and in this case was probably fully imprinted and could not survive in the wild.
The waving of some appropriate food in it`s direction soon remedied te problem and the bird is now safe and eating well.

Suricate
 
Suricate said:
Many Eagle Owls are kept in captivity and some are flown but the problem with these birds is after about three years these birds become more aggresive and will attack, some escape but many are just released, due to people not being able to cope or like in many cases get bored ! I know of a few owls that although are non indigenous have adapted and are surving in the wild and hunting themselves. The most common of these is the European Eagle Owl but there are one or two great Horned.


Suricate

My mate, whose not a birder but knows a bit, reckons he saw an eagle owl when he was fishing and I didn't believe him. There's a possible explanation.
 
Suricate said:
Hi Sue,
Is that a thumbnail of the Owl ?
If so it is a bengal Eagle Owl ( Obviously Captive bred ) with anklets.
Many Eagle Owls are kept in captivity and some are flown but the problem with these birds is after about three years these birds become more aggresive and will attack, some escape but many are just released, due to people not being able to cope or like in many cases get bored !
Obviously Owls in captivity become reliant on being fed by humans and an escaped Owl will show no fear of humans especially when hungry ( some starve ). I know of a few owls that although are non indigenous have adapted and are surving in the wild and hunting themselves. The most common of these is the European Eagle Owl but there are one or two great Horned.
On sunday 24th Oct I was called out to an owl that was flying at people and had caught someone in the face.
It was a captive Tawny Owl that was very hungry and assuming that anyone would have food for it.
The bird was fitted with anklets and in this case was probably fully imprinted and could not survive in the wild.
The waving of some appropriate food in it`s direction soon remedied te problem and the bird is now safe and eating well.

Suricate


Hi Suricate

Yes it is a picture of the owl about 10 mins before he was let out of his cage, the reason he was let out by the owners was for him to have a bit of food and for my kids to take more photos. I don't know how old he is. Thanks for telling me what breed it is the owners did tell me when we arrived there but I couldn't remember.

Thanks Sue ;)
 
Strange how things affect children too, my grandson 3 is waking up at night terrified of the hooting of our local tawnys, but has never even seen one in the garden, he missed out on the flyer in the summer, but wakes up scared of them. I do hope your little girl is not going to be affected, as any attack can be detrimental mentally. I used to see both tawny's and Barns but never feared them, just a healthy respect for them, but I wouldn't like to see them attack a human, but watching them in the wild is wonderful.
 
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