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Great Horned Owls can be huge, and will most definitely snack on small dogs and cats.
A GHO averages 3 1/2 pounds, and will go 4 pounds at the very most for a large female. An adult cat will be double or triple the weight of the owl, and for the bird to attack one puts it at extremely high risk of being killed by the felines arsenal of weapons. Owls feed on mice, rats, and other birds, not other predators. A cottontail rabbit is about the largest prey that they can reliably take. About the only North American raptor that is a consistent serious threat to a healthy adult cat or small dog is the Golden Eagle, with the females being as heavy as 15 pounds.
Definitely not a myth. Some people here just leave animals out to die when they can't reproduce anymore and therefore are worthless. i have seen many of a dog carcass being eaten by hawks, vultures, etc.
My aunt has a small dog and they live in a suburban area. She once told me that birds try and swoop down at her small dog so it definitely happens.
i have seen many of a dog carcass being eaten by hawks, vultures, etc.
Almost certainly scavanged after dying of natural causes or being killed by a larger mammal predator. For sure when vultures are involved, which do not kill large live prey.
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My aunt has a small dog and they live in a suburban area. She once told me that birds try and swoop down at her small dog so it definitely happens.
Very commonplace bird behavior when defending a nest. Tiny songbirds will swoop down and "buzz" an animal or even a human several hundred times their size. The bird cannot inflict any damage, just perhaps a quick tap with a wing and then fly away, but it can startle and discourage. Can be quite funny to observe your pet or even someone you know getting buzzed, unless, of course, you are the one that is the target.
Very commonplace bird behavior when defending a nest. Tiny songbirds will swoop down and "buzz" an animal or even a human several hundred times their size.
Very true. My husband let our dogs out this spring, and they started barking. 3 baby robins had fallen into their fenced area and Mama was divebombing them. He opened the door and one of my "vicious" pit bulls came flying in the house with her tail between her legs. The other was just running around excited. He and my daughter got the other babies out to the other side of the fence unharmed. I was out and missed all the excitement.
Not a myth, we have a friend that has a younger small Pom, that she let out one morning. An owl swooped down and grabbed the dog and landed in a tree a few houses down, as it landed it lost the grip on the dog and dropped it, the dog survived with just a broken leg.
When my parents first got their chihuahua she was really small we had to actually make a small covered cage with a lid out of lattice and 2X4s because anytime she went outside and we weren't standing next to her, hawks would swoop down and try to catch her.
black shoe, while your right about weigh limits your forgetting not all dogs are 30+ lbs, not all cats are 15lb balls of fluff...
i have 2 cats, the biggest of which is 5lbs full grown, ive personally seen hawks take domestic rabbits and chickens in the 5+ lb range...
i have 2 dogs, one of which is 5lbs full grown, he is aboslulty small enough to be taken...sure my 10lb dog is much less likely to be taken ive personally known birds of prey attack larger prey animals if the environment is prime and safe for a landing/eat on the spot...
anything under 10lbs IS 100% at risk from birss of prey...
anything under 30lbs is 100% at risk from ground predators like coyotes...
i dont think anyone is saying fido the beagle, or bob the maine coon is at risk from a hawk or owl...but a chihuahua or small cat..absolutly is anything "bunny sized" (and after seeing a great horned owl struggle with young flemmish giant but manage to tear the rabbit to shreds in the process (the rabbit was about 12lbs) i dont put anything past them.)
Not a myth, we have a friend that has a younger small Pom, that she let out one morning. An owl swooped down and grabbed the dog and landed in a tree a few houses down, as it landed it lost the grip on the dog and dropped it, the dog survived with just a broken leg.
Raptor experts and researchers have done actual tests and experiments with owls, hawks, and eagles on lifting abilities. The cold, hard results of this research indicates that a bird of prey can only lift and fly off with a weight of up to one third of its own bodyweight, no more. Just how a 3 or at the most, 4 pound owl could fly off with a snall Pom is quite a mystery. For some reason there has been a trend to paint "Cats as victims", supposedly falling prey to just about everthing larger than a hamster. Often forgotten is just how tough and what superb fighters felines are, including domestic cats. For example, a healthy domestic cat can knock the tar out of a fox unless the fox is very large and the cat small. A raptor on the ground, perhaps feeding on a kill or carrion, is the creature at risk, not the small mammal predator. Owls, including GHOs, are killed by cats on the ground or on the nest, and even the mighty Golden Eagle can be very vulnerable to bobcat or coyote attack. Some of our smaller, tougher dog breeds would also prove to be very tough targets for a bird of prey. Would think that a JR or PD terrier would give an eagle all it wanted, and then some, and have seen more than one 4 or 5 pound Chihuahua that would try to rip an owl to pieces.
theres a problem with that blackshoe...firstly the great horned owl usuall consumes large rodents and rabbits (typically up to 4lbs...) but its well documented that great horned owls at an average of 3 1/2lbs also take skunks, ADULT skunks which typically weigh anythign from 5-12lbs.
ive worked with raptors (in the uk my father and i were lisenced falconers, and ive worked with many in captivity, and done raptor rehabilitation...i can tell you from experience anything 5lbs and under is at real risk from a great horned owl and have been documented to attack larger domestic animals...while i agree a cat or larger terrier is a threat to even the likes of a GHO, a 5lb dog doesnt stand a chance against any raptors beak or talons...
i know personally of a 10lb poodle that was badly shredded by what was determined to be a great horned owl attack, she thankfully survived but it was touch and go...and ive seen the mess a GHO can do to a domestic cat too...most ghos wont take an adult domestic cat, but young cats and kittens are fair game!
many raptors hunt jackrabbit and oppossum, both of which can weigh up to around the 10lb mark!
red taild hawks frequently kill and feed on ground, ive seen them decimate chicken coops with birds in the 5-8lb mark (friend lost all his jersey giants (a flock of 13) over the span of a month to a pair of red tailed hawks, his own fault for not properly securing his coop but jersey giant hens weigh right around the 10lb mark.
and a neighbor lost her adult flemish giant rabbit to a hawk, flemish can grow upwards of 15lbs (i belive this particular rabbit was closer to 12 lbs, she figured that the rabbit was too big for any of the local birds of prey (turkey vultures and red tails) and left the rabbit in an uncovered dog pen...came out to rabbit screams but was too late, the hawk had landed and began to eat, she fought it off with a branch but the rabbit was already eviserated!
i lived with chichuahus, ive owned them and while your right many a chihuhau would try to give a bird of prey a good fight the short and sweet of it is, not much actually stands a chance if a raptor gets its talons in!
it is true that most raptors cannot carry an animal weighing more than 4lbs very far...
it doesnt mean they dont try!
The fact is that birds of preys don;t all weigh the same, thats why i use the 8kg max because that about what the US Fish & wildlife says is about the largest of the femal alaskan eagles. So although the average is much lower, even at 8kg, that stuill means most birds of prey can't fly off with anything much bigger than a very small dog or cat.
What I think is happening is many animals are attacked but not carried off. When attack, little Fluffy goes off running and ends up a mile or so before it collapses. Now another bird of prey takes advantage of the body and thats what people see and think it was carried there by the bird.
But regardles of the actual weight of the BoP, any report or anyone saying that their 10 lb or more cat or dog, or they saw a eagle carrying away a goat, or a hawk dropping a great dane from the sky, or... well we all know those are bs stories cause it just didn;t happen......
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