The Courier has teamed up with Blair Drummond Safari Park to offer readers the chance to win a family pass for two adults and two children each week - and learn a bit more about their residents at the same time.
On Saturday, May 28, the park celebrated the first birthday of its spectacled owl Rick.
Spectacled owls, so named for the white markings around their eyes, are tropical owls native to forests from Southern Mexico, through to central America and South America.
The safari park’s education officer Jamie-Leigh Green said: “When Rick first came to us, he was almost a complete negative of himself, being completely white with black spectacles around his eyes.
“Now, he is just about to shed the last of his juvenile feathers and is mostly chocolate brown in colour with a cream abdomen.
“Spectacled owls may not look particularly big at first glance sitting at about 40-50cm long, but they are actually the largest owls in their native tropical forests.
“They are very proficient hunters and can take down small mammals such as skunks and possums, although the majority of their diet is made up of rodents and insects. The spectacled owl is primarily a nocturnal species, meaning they most often hunt at night. In order to successfully do this, spectacled owls rely heavily on their keen hearing. Spectacled owls are equipped with a facial disk designed to funnel sound straight to its ears.
“They have asymmetrical ear openings, which means that one ear opening is located higher up on one side of the head, while the other is located lower on the opposite side of the head.
“These ear positions allow the owls to triangulate exactly where sounds are coming from and help them to effectively locate their prey.
“ The owl can then quickly swoop down from its perch to catch a meal, before returning to the understory of the forest, where they can more easily avoid detection in the lush, dense foliage of the young trees and shrubs.”
Blair Drummond Safari Park is open seven days a week, from 10am until 5.30pm. Tickets can be booked online at blairdrummond.com.
For a chance to win a family pass, pick up this week's West Lothian Courier
Don't miss the latest news from the West Lothian Courier. Sign up to our free newsletter here
