Owl (Reaktion Books - Animal) Review

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Owl (Reaktion Books - Animal) ReviewIf you, like me, are intrigued by owls and want to know more about them; if you think you like owls, but don't know much about them; if you are a bird lover, including but not limited to, owls--whatever your level of interest---you may want to look further, as this book is bound to disappoint.
One can easily imagine why Desmond Morris was asked by the editors of the Reaktion Book series (each book dealing with a different animal or insect) to write about owls. After all, back in 1967 Mr. Morris achieved fame with "The Naked Ape" (which I read and enjoyed 30 years ago). Now 72 years old, Mr. Morris, a British zoologist and ethnologist, appears to have published extensively on animals and their behavior since his breakthrough publication.
Unfortunately, one can also just as easily get the impression that Mr. Morris waited until the last moment before the submission deadline for his manuscript, and then, in a panic, Googled "owls" to gather various and sundry facts which he quickly cobbled together with no real unifying theme or approach. The result is a superficial survey, a pastiche that is neither particularly informative nor interesting. For example, we learn that certain cultures revered the owl (Greece), while others did not (Rome); certain Indian tribes appreciate the owl (Pawnee); others fear it (Hopi); some harbor both feelings (Aborigines). These facile descriptions go on for pages (the Index, which is quite brief, nevertheless lists 30 different Native American tribes, each of which merits a sentence or two on their view of owls).
In fact the only kernel of useful information this reviewer picked up dealt with the myth of the owls as "wise" and possessed of superior intelligence. Morris points out (based no doubt on his evolutionary background) that many other types of birds (such as the crow) have to live much more opportunistically, by their wits, since they have developed no special survival techniques. As a result, they are much more intelligent than the owl, which has evolved such highly specialized sense organs and physical attributes (soft feathers) that it simply doesn't face the same survival challenges as the generalist does. Beyond that, Mr. Morris could have done us all a favor by reducing the book to its pictures (which are quite good), leaving out his shallow text. At least for North American residents, a far more informative work is "Owls of the United States and Canada: A Complete Guide to Their Biology and Behavior."

Bottom line: save your money and time for a better book than this; you won't regret it.
Owl (Reaktion Books - Animal) Overview

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