From Nicole Seward
Check out those murder mittens as this Great horned owl takes off! Their talons are about 1.5 inches long with a grip strength of 200-500 pounds per square inch. That’s six times stronger than a handshake from a bodybuilder! Aren’t you glad you aren’t owl prey?
Based on the grip strength mentioned above I would have half-suspected that these birds were carrying off sheep and the like. But no, it sounds more like it’s about absolutely making sure they get a crushing grip so as not to let the prey accidentally escape. At least, that’s my armchair theory of the moment.
Most of what I read describes the grip as what actually kills the prey. The talons are basically backup in the task.
After it’s been dispatched, the small stuff they will eat whole, and for the larger stuff, the talons are a fork, and the beak is a knife.
If you want to read about carrying off bigger things, not goat sized but still impressive, check out Powerful Owl and Milky Eagle Owl. Eurasian Eagle will also take big stuff, but not as often. But it has probably the biggest list of what it will eat. It’s a whole wiki page just of food items!
But just look at the absurd amount of crazy, killing force upon… small rodents, for the most parts! Why, exactly…?
Now maybe you’re right, and maybe you’re wrong, but I KNOW THIS-- across nature, one of the cardinal rules is that we DON’T waste resources and we DON’T take unnecessary risks. For example, that’s one of the most fundamental concerns across all of nature.
Ah, we just talked about this!
For us humans to try to crush something in our hands takes extreme effort.
But owl feet are purpose built for this job! There aren’t even muscles in the feet, yet they are able to generate this grip automatically by nature of their anatomy. The feet are the source of where all owl superbness flows.
Hahaha, we’re always arguing upon this or that. But… but… but… wait… wHHHAAT!??
“Most of what I read describes the grip as what actually kills the prey. The talons are basically backup in the task.”
REALLY NOW…?
It may seem counterintuitive, but you’re thinking of it from a human perspective. For a person trying to be an assassin, having some Freddy Krueger hands would be awesome. And it’s not like the owl doesn’t put them to great use. For defense, they’re the go to. They are sharp and will stab really good and the keep the face safe. They’ll toss themselves in their backs and slash those things all around, turning themselves into an insane porcupine.
But for taking the offensive, think of an action movie. Nobody that gets stabbed ever dies right away. They take that opportunity to make their last monologue, or the stabber has time to regret what they did or whatever. But think of the really strong Stalone or Arnold types. They’re going around using their super strength, snapping necks and getting the insta-kills. Why would you burger with the knives, when you could just snap a spine with just the effort it takes to sit down?
Combine that crushing blow with some coincidental stabbing, and you’ve got a killer combo.
Now I hear falcons will kill with the beak, and hawks and eagles will kill with the talons, and cultures don’t typically kill at all, so even though many of these raptors look similar, their functioning can be quite different. That’s what makes them fascinating!
Dang… and I always & specifically aim to *avoid* that!
(what a burn-my-arse call-out 😔)
No-no-NO, that’s not what I was commenting upon. Animals can indeed have slashing, devastating teeth, claws & otherwise to deter rivals and predators. But that is not what I was talking about.
What I was talking about was the fact that the GHO has -astronomically- overpowered crushing strength in its talons, compared to its typical prey, which has never been measured as being over 16lbs in the wild, AFAIK.
In superhero terms, it’s almost like having the ability to fly, but only doing some cool hops. But that’s also why I proposed my theory above.
Lol now I see. It’s still impressive to me though. It’s still a 3 pound bird spine busting mammals and birds 4 or 5 times their size. I feel that’s like me bending a big motorcycle in half.
And from the other post I linked, them doing their dive-bomb and hiring the target makes those talons snap closed like a mousetrap where they don’t even need to think about it.
Yeap, I think that’s the main point, despite our squabblings, hier und da.
I.e.-- raptors and carnivores of the feline-variety have an almost magical-ability to OWN their prey, so to speak, physics be damned.