A great horned owl flies recently through a eucalyptus grove in one of Santa Cruz County’s state parks. These owls live throughout most of North America and in large swaths of South America as well. According to the International Owl Center, “The first year of life is the hardest to survive for great horned owls and depends heavily on food abundance. Once they reach adulthood, survival rates are very good. They have no natural predators as adults, so most owls admitted to rehabilitation centers are the result of human-caused problems: hit by car, shot, electrocuted, caught in barbed wire, caught in leghold traps, west Nile virus, poison, etc. Natural causes of death include starvation and hunting injuries.” It’s one of the most common owls in North America, equally at home in deserts, wetlands, forests, grasslands, backyards, cities, and almost any other semi-open habitat between the Arctic and the tropics. (Shmuel Thaler – Santa Cruz Sentinel)
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