Witnesses, while driving along a nighttime road, encountered an impressive owl. Coming to their senses from the surprise, they realized that it was an eagle-owl. “At first, we noticed two large yellow eyes shining in the dark. As we got closer, we discovered the eagle-owl sitting on a post,” they recounted.
Ecologist Alexander Sosnovsky noted that the eagle-owl is indeed considered the king among owls. It is characterized by a powerful body, strong beak, and large talons. “This lord of the night can handle a young roe deer or even swallow a hedgehog whole, ignoring its spines. The eagle-owl hunts hares, ground squirrels, mice, and birds. In captivity, it rarely becomes tame, always showing aggression,” the specialist added. Eagle-owls can live up to 50 years.
In the past, Kyrgyz people used feathers and down plucked from the chest of the eagle-owl to decorate the headdresses of children and girls, believing that it protected them from the evil eye. In the folk tradition, when they want to express that someone is lucky, they say: “He found the eagle-owl's nest,” Sosnovsky shared.
