One key aspect Roulin said needed further explanation was the behavior of voles under moonlight. “We observed that voles ...

Image Credit: San-Jose et al., Nature, 2019 The stuffed white owls also seemed to draw predatory power from the faux moonlight: The better lit the room was, the brighter the birds glowed—and the ...

Or they run. But when they see a white owl in bright moonlight, the terrified rodents act like deer caught in headlights and freeze up to 5 seconds longer than they do for a reddish-brown barn owl.

The work by the team involved modeling how light played off the sky, various parts of the ground and the owl's plumage. They ...

A 2019 study found that in moonlight, if it is a red owl, the chance of a field vole escaping is pretty good. However, if it is a white owl, the vole is blinded by the moonlight reflecting off the ...

2019). This difference is unexpected, because white feathers reflect the moonlight the best, making white barn owls more visible than their reddish-brown relatives. As white owls are better seen ...

Owls have superb camouflage, often appearing identical to tree bark or a bank of fresh snow. Many of them are nocturnal, hunting for mice and frogs by moonlight. And they fly noiselessly ...