15-20 is pretty ancient for a captive Screech, and I hadn’t seen anything on how old he was when he was originally taken in, like if he was born with bad eyes, got them after a few years maybe from disease or injury, or if he was already a pretty old owl when they got him. He’s been in captivity longer than a typical Screech would be alive in the wild.
I’m glad to see he is still around!
Check out this older post for some further details on both Zeus and another amazing type of “galaxy eye” that seems to only happen to Burrowing Owls.
It only happens to Burrowing Owls, but is it an effect of the blindness?
I would assume so, but then why only Burrowing Owls?
Oh shoot, I forgot to post the link! 😅
This comment in particular goes into Zeus’s specific medical conditions.
Very satisfying read - thanks
Glad you liked it! It’s not too often we seem to get a decent amount of details of one of these atypical cases.
Zeus is such an apt name for this Magnifi… Oops, i mean Superb Owl.
😁
I was going to make a comment about how this post was “so old the Owl might even be dead”
Glad to see that’s apparently not the case.
I’m not sure how old he is, but I’m glad he’s getting to live a long and spoiled life.
Given that the photo first surfaced in 2014ish, at least 11 years. No idea how old that is in Owl years.
But yes, I’m also glad.
15-20 is pretty ancient for a captive Screech, and I hadn’t seen anything on how old he was when he was originally taken in, like if he was born with bad eyes, got them after a few years maybe from disease or injury, or if he was already a pretty old owl when they got him. He’s been in captivity longer than a typical Screech would be alive in the wild.