杏吧原创

Messages from an Owl by Max R. Terman, Princeton,
拢17.95/$24.95, ISBN 0 691 01105 2

FEATHERED pet or 鈥減hantom winged tiger鈥�? Biologist Max Terman did not
know what the future held for the abandoned great horned owl chick he rescued
from a Kansas City park in March 1988. Messages from an Owl is the
story of his efforts to raise and prepare the owlet for life in the
wild.

This was the first time a researcher had closely monitored over several years
the movements of a bird of prey fitted with a radio transmitter.

Terman, a lecturer in animal behaviour, was keen to carry out radiotelemetry
studies on the bird but knew it was risky. Owls reared by humans usually become
imprinted on their foster parents and cannot recognise their own species. The
pattern for great horned owls is fixed between the second and sixth week of
life. Stripey was roughly four weeks old when found, so Terman could not be sure
whether the bird鈥檚 identity was fully developed.

This question was answered in March 1993, when Terman found Stripey
incubating two eggs in a nest. To his surprise, Stripey鈥攚ho he had thought
was male because of its size and the sounds it made鈥攚as female.

Terman鈥檚 book combines an off-beat adventure story with pertinent
observations on the nature-versus-nurture debate and stylistically wavers
between scientific detachment and a more anthropomorphic tone. He describes the
bird鈥檚 hunger when he found it as 鈥渇ood distress鈥�, but later claims she 鈥渕ust
have been amazed鈥� at how easily he found her after he fitted the
transmitter.

Terman is a skilled and dedicated animal behaviourist. The book is a unique
study and fine testament to long hours spent on the twilit Kansan prairie.
Unfortunately, the accompanying photos are poor.