How can owls hunt in pitch darkness, like when there's no moon?
by 
Alaskacatalog
ANSWERS: 5
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It's never completely dark outside at night. Owls have good night vision but even better audio ranging capability.
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When small rodents leave the burrow or den to go look for food at night, they tend to stick near a wall, rocks, or same path, leaving a little urine trail as they go. This helps them find their way back. Owls have an ultraviolet capability, meaning they can see it, and follow the trail along as if following a marked map the their favorite restaurant. [best way to compare is in to look at carpet cleaning kits. Some have enclosed a black light to find the 'pet pee' spots... bio fluids glow under ultra violet light.
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Owls cannot see UV light nor rodent urine like their daytime raptors can; it's been well studied. Besides, there's almost no UV at night. But they have *extraordinary* hearing and can find prey in a completely dark room just based on hearing. This has also been well studied. The prey merely needs to make some noise. Most owls have one ear high than the other, meaning it can use arrival/phase difference and volume difference simultaneously to get up/down and left/right direction cues simultaneously, in addition to other direction cues. They are extraordinary creatures. BTW, owls also cannot see infrared light, like some snakes use to find rodents.
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What is pitch dark to us is not pitch dark to them - they can see in light levels a tent of ours or less. But they mainly hunt by sound - they use sight only for the last few incehs of the attack.
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they'll probably wonder why there are so many of us yet they seldom ever see us hunt anything.
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