Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 13:09:43 EST Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: William Leigh Subject: Re: Proxemics and Snowy Owls MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lydia, To know them is to fear them is the motto that most birds of prey around here live by. However, birds of the far north with a breeding range above 60 degrees latitude, apparently have no fear of humans. I suspose this is due to lack of contact with people. What occurs to me is that it is not really in the best interest of the Owl to be habituated to close proximity to people. I can't say that this idea is completely defensible in all situations but it just seems to me the Owl would be better off having some fear of humans. Which of course it doesn't. That said I am wondering if by taking advantage of the situation and viewing the Owl from extremly close distances ( like from below the very pole the bird is perched we are reinforcing the idea that humans are not a threat. Besides with todays Scopes and Bins one can see this bird very well from more reasonable distances. I hope I am not sounding too critical here these are just my thoughts on the issue. Having grown up in a relatively rural area I know that there are always some kids and even adults who would not think twice of shooting this bird. William Leigh Leightern@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================