O RLY?

Finally, after two hours, the decision was made to shoot it.

Wow, a whole 2 hours.

Better than having a snowy owl pandemic on your hands.

Someones pet, maybe?

I really don't understand keeping birds as pets. It's on my list of "reasons not to date a chick".

The NYTimes quoted Denver Holt, director of the Owl Research Institute in Montana as saying the following:

"One showed up at the airport in Hawaii, and they shot it," he added in astonishment. "It's the first ever in Hawaii and they shot it!"


STFU, you whiny biatch.

I like the headline. Kudos.

Avada Kadavra



"Alakazam!"

No tranquilizers?

A pest is a pest, no matter how pretty they are, I suppose.

Do you like our owl?

Too Old. More interesting? OR-XXXX wolf that's in Southern OR, NoCA now. Because some asshole wants to kill it and tell his/her friends.

ByOwlLight: AverageAmericanGuy: Do you like our owl?

It's artificial?

Of course it is.

lohphat: relaxitsjustme: Finally, after two hours, the decision was made to shoot it.

Wow, a whole 2 hours.

You've obviously never experienced "Hawaiian Time".

Nothing happens on the islands in a hurry.

I left for work one morning on the Big Island, and a cow had fallen in the road. I got to work super super late and stressed and when I saw my boss I started going through an excuse, my boss looks at me and laughs and says "no worries!"

Oh, great. Another misspelled headline gets greenlit. This should be fun.

The USDA members in question:



/Can't believe I'm the Weeners this.

cheap_thoughts: wildcardjack: Someones pet, maybe?

I really don't understand keeping birds as pets. It's on my list of "reasons not to date a chick".

The problem is that the owls are coming down from their native habitat in the arctic to land they would never live in because of a lack of food. This is causing a problem because they are usually sick or dying, and people are walking up to them in fields, and they're not moving. They're no longer predators, they're prey.

Um, you realize Hawaii is incredibly geographically isolated, right? It's essentially physically impossible that any bird that can't stop in the middle of open water to feed and rest could end up in Hawaii without human intervention, we're pretty obviously talking about a human-transported invasive species, not an actual migration.

If we were talking about Mexico or something, sure, maybe, there are potential paths that the owls could follow without starving to death. Hawaii, not so much. There's a reason Darwin's work focused on Pacific island chains.

Some memes never get old.

/ HA! HA!
// I'm using the Internet!

thursdaypostal: A pest is a pest, no matter how pretty they are, I suppose.

They're upset only because the owls are pretty. If it was a vulture, they wouldn't care.
And if pandas didn't have those big black eyes, they would have been long gone from this world.

/It pays to be cute. And I pay more for cuteness.

The Ghost of Tom Ace: The USDA members in question:

[lh5.googleusercontent.com image 565x303]

/Can't believe I'm the Weeners this.

Boy, this party really died...

We had a snowy owl hanging out at our airport in Kalamazoo and I don't recall any efforts to have it killed. No plane crashes, either...

"Hey, Brah! We got da new kine pupu!

"He, or she, also made several unsuccessful attempts to catch it in a gun net, a contraption that shoots out nets."

Really? A gun net shoots out a net? I never would have been able to figure that out on my own!

/sarcasm.

Jim_Callahan: cheap_thoughts: wildcardjack: Someones pet, maybe?

I really don't understand keeping birds as pets. It's on my list of "reasons not to date a chick".

The problem is that the owls are coming down from their native habitat in the arctic to land they would never live in because of a lack of food. This is causing a problem because they are usually sick or dying, and people are walking up to them in fields, and they're not moving. They're no longer predators, they're prey.

Um, you realize Hawaii is incredibly geographically isolated, right? It's essentially physically impossible that any bird that can't stop in the middle of open water to feed and rest could end up in Hawaii without human intervention, we're pretty obviously talking about a human-transported invasive species, not an actual migration.

If we were talking about Mexico or something, sure, maybe, there are potential paths that the owls could follow without starving to death. Hawaii, not so much. There's a reason Darwin's work focused on Pacific island chains.

Some Pacific Golden Plovers migrate to Hawaii from Alaska every year, and they do it by flying non stop!

/Just saying.

The Ghost of Tom Ace: The USDA members in question:

[lh5.googleusercontent.com image 565x303]

/Can't believe I'm the Weeners this.

I can.

/penis

Alien species are serious business in Hawaii; if it isn't already here, odds are that the state and federal governments (USDA and HDOA) will do their damndest to keep it out, if only to keep the already-farked-beyond-recognition ecosystems here somewhat viable.

On the flip side, can you imagine the uproar if a plane went down and killed 100 people with an owl in the engine?

Why didn't they just kill it? It was only an owl.

He needed a plate lunch from L&L.

Verifiable proof on how coconuts are capable of migration

/grab it by the husk

I bet it was too tired to move very far after FLYING HALF WAY ACROSS THE PACIFIC

So was it good eatin'?

TravelingFreakshow: He needed a plate lunch from L&L.

The Hawaiian plate, or the Loco Moco?

Can't wait till they make it back to West Virginia.

/MOTHMAN
//stay off the bridges

The Ghost of Tom Ace: The USDA members in question:

[lh5.googleusercontent.com image 565x303]

/Can't believe I'm the Weeners this.

Oh, I believe you're the weeners.

We've seen these in WI a lot recently too.

The theory is, the lemmings population crashes and they move south to find food. Happens once in a while. (I saw one here, an we don't normally get them.)

Someone probably grabbed a sick one and tried to make it a pet by smuggling it on an airplane. It got out (and got sicker on the trip over).

The humane thing to do was kill it. Life expectancy is probably nil. AND, if it lived, you don't want it running around on an island where the rest of the critters don't know how to deal with it.

cheap_thoughts: wildcardjack: Someones pet, maybe?

I really don't understand keeping birds as pets. It's on my list of "reasons not to date a chick".

The problem is that the owls are coming down from their native habitat in the arctic to land they would never live in because of a lack of food. This is causing a problem because they are usually sick or dying, and people are walking up to them in fields, and they're not moving. They're no longer predators, they're prey.

They were probably brought in as part of a secret invasive-wildlife management program. Ya know, to combat all the snakes in Hawaii. Should have just brought in honey badgers.

thursdaypostal: No tranquilizers?

A pest is a pest, no matter how pretty they are, I suppose.

I'm unaware of any program that shoots flighted-birds with tranquilizers. I doubt that there would be a safe place to impale them with a needle. I'm also guessing it'd be a really tough shot were the bird stationary and impossible if it were in motion.

Meh. Saw a rather healthy one on a power line here in Florida 30 years ago. We thought it was fake because it never moved, until someone shined its eyes and the pupils contracted. Okay sure, this isn't exactly tropical Hawaii, but it's still far south of the native range, and they kinda stand out. Not sure how well they would play with our natives, but they're about the same size; this freak looked to be almost two feet tall.

/I've seen the local horned owls swoop down and fly off with cats before; too funny.

Saw a few of them here in the UP which up here is even a bit unusual, damn they're big owls.

kiwannabee: [members.arstechnica.com image 500x375]


Some memes never get old.

/ HA! HA!
// I'm using the Internet!

lmao! dude i love the owl threads. like you said never gets old.

what the fark is the internet?

Beautiful white owl? First ever in Hawaii

KILL IT IMMEDIATELY.

/USA! It's how we roll
//No unauthorized non-commercial beauty will be tolerated
///It's the only viable authoritarian response